The Nation : Fires Burning Everglades

Fires enveloped more than 50,000 acres of South Florida as Gov. Robert Graham declared a state of emergency and forestry experts predicted weather would make one of three major blazes--the fire northeast of Naples--uncontrollable. The largest fire was burning over about 46,000 acres of uninhabited Florida Everglades grasslands in northwest Broward County on the state’s southeast coast, said Paul Wills, Division of Forestry spokesman. He said the fire could easily double in size. As of late Wednesday, 1,429 fires had destroyed 51,124 acres of forest since Jan. 1, Wills said. The figures do not include grassland, such as that burning in the Everglades fire.