Wildfires, hurricanes, and lessons on cooperation from Florida Panhandle

Jody Daniels has witnessed a fire or two in his life spent in the Florida Panhandle. He spent years fighting back flames at the side of his father, who was the volunteer fire department chief in unincorporated Kinard for four decades. Now he’s the fire chief himself.

But Mr. Daniels had never witnessed anything like the Bertha Swamp Road Fire that erupted in their region in early March. The fire broke out on a Friday, he remembers. In less than a week, it spread across roughly 34,000 acres, according to state estimates. As aircraft dumped fire retardants on the inferno that week, Mr. Daniels realized their small crew of volunteers and emergency personnel was among the last lines of defense between the flames and their neighbors’ homes. 

“Next thing you know, it’s knocking at your back door. It’s coming,” Mr. Daniels says.

Mercifully, the crisis in Kinard was averted