July 13, 1998
Cindy Hancock Finney
Community Information
Volusia County enters recovery/mitigation phase
Figuring out the cost of the wildfires which swept Volusia in the last month and how to prevent them from happening again is the next job for the County's Emergency Operations staff.
"We're moving into the recovery and mitigation phase," said Jay Hinton, Volusia County Emergency Management's Operations and Training Officer. "This is every bit as important in many ways as the response phase."
Hinton said staff will be looking at the restoration of a large part of the County -- some 137,000 acres were burned as a result of the wildfires -- and what can be done to prevent a reoccurrence. Also under scrutiny will be the costs associated with the wildfires and who will pay. Volusia County is expected to be reimbursed by the federal government for some of the costs connected to protecting lives and property.
The Emergency Operations Center has completed demobilization with firefighters from out of the area sent home and Volusia crews back on a regular rotation schedule. The U.S. Forest Service has reduced personnel to about 400 and reports the fires are about 98 percent contained -- ringed by fire lines with no fuel left to burn inside those lines.
Firefighters continue to monitor fire activity for hot spots and are continuing make fighting any new fires a priority. Controlled fires will be set in some areas as conditions warrant
Beginning Tuesday, the Emergency Operations Center will return to a Level 2 activation, which in essence means on the alert and monitoring but back to normal operations.
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