Wildfire destroys 30 acres of Egmont Key

Firefighters from multiple agencies extinguished a brush fire that destroyed 30 acres of Egmont Key State Park Sunday.

According to Jim Millican, division chief and fire marshal for the Lealman Fire District, six employees of the Tampa Bay Pilots Association, which maintains a station on the otherwise uninhabited 440-acre island, were evacuated. No structures were damaged. The organization supplies trained harbor pilots to board and pilot large commercial vessels entering Tampa Bay from the Gulf of Mexico.

A “fire stop,” created by bulldozing approximately 25 feet of ground, was created around the perimeter of the blaze, Millican said, to keep it from spreading.

“There’s no hydrants over there, you can’t get a fire engine there, it’s a separated island so you couldn’t get anything to it,” Millican explained. “A fire boat couldn’t reach it because the fire was more towards the center of the island and then worked its way to the coastline.”

Helicopters from the Tampa Fire Department used Bambi buckets, which can hold more than 1,000 gallons of water, to douse the flames.

A cause of the fire has not been determined, although firefighters speculated the intense heat and dry air were contributors.

The ruins of Fort Dade on Egmont Key. Photo by Bill DeYoung.

Located at the mouth of lower Tampa Bay, Egmont Key was the home of Fort Dade, built as a bay defense during the Spanish-American War in the early 20^th century.

Although its sister structure, Fort DeSoto, two miles to the north on Mullet Key, remains more or less intact, Fort Dade was not singled out for preservation and has been allowed to collapse into the Gulf.

Exploring the ruins of Fort Dade is popular among visitors to Egmont Key, which is only accessible by boat.

Once the fire units had extinguished the blaze, further investigation was turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Fire caused by a lightning strike burned 35 acres of Egmont Key in July 2016.