Firefighters continue battling fires in Florida Panhandle

Florida firefighters were working to hold containment lines around a 2,000-acre (809-hectare) fire in the state's Panhandle, where winds were expected to shift Friday and push it toward homes.

The firebreak was about a half-mile from a neighborhood, officials said. While no evacuations have been issued, they urged residents to be ready to leave their homes should they be given the word to do so.

People should be prepared and be ready, said Ludie Bond, a spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service.

Daniel Felder escaped flames Wednesday when the fire invaded his neighborhood near Milton, Florida, where fire crews were staging to combat the fire from a church parking lot.

Felder described a harrowing scene.

He recounted how the sky was glowing with sunlight, then grow dark as winds began to whip.

He stepped out into the road to watch the acrid smoke billow toward him. Ash started raining from the sky like light snow drifting in twilight.

Then came the crackle of fire, and he knew it was time to run.

Next thing you know, the fire was right there, said Felder, 45, recounting the minutes Wednesday afternoon when a raging fire swept through his bucolic wooded neighborhood.

Unable to flee, Felder and his landlord waded into a nearby pond until the fire passed.

The house was spared, but the fire took down a barn and turned the surrounding trees into a charred forest of blackened trunks. On Friday, helicopter and tractor units continued to battle fires in the Panhandle that have forced hundreds of residents to flee, scorched thousands of acres and razed dozens of structures.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services reported that the 2,000-acre (809-hectare) fire in Santa Rosa County, just east of Pensacola, is 35% contained. That fire forced the evacuation of 1,100 homes Wednesday, though a few of those residents have been allowed to return to their homes.

A stretch of Interstate 10, northern Florida's main transportation artery, remained closed in both directions near Pensacola because of smoke. A 575-acre (233-hectare) fire in Walton County prompted about 500 people to evacuate. Fire officials said it was 70% contained.