FLORIDA, JULY 4: Forest fires in the northeastern coast of Florida have forced some 70,000 people to abandon their homes and businesses. The rampaging fire has led to the cancellation of many events, including the independence day celebrations and sporting activities in many parts of Florida.Government authorities ordered the evacuation of an entire county Bunnell to save the lives of over 30,000 people from the wild fires. Though forest fires are not uncommon every year during summer in this part of the US, this time they have struck heavily (thrice than what happens normally) say officials.Fires burned through the neighbouring towns of Bunnell and Palm Coast early today. More than half of Palm Coast, which has a population of 15,000, was already under a mandatory evacuation. Residents were advised to head westward to the inland city of Palatka. The flames have burned more than 125 homes and blackened more than 680 square kilometres, twice the land touched by fires in a normal year in Florida. Inaddition to the Flagler county evacuations, some 40,000 were out of their homes in two other east coast counties, Brevard and Volusia.Lawton Chiles, state governor, called on Florida's mayors to send more equipment, including bulldozers, to clear fire lines around residential areas. Officials and fire-fighting crews admitted they can do little to stop such huge blazes.``This is like a hurricane. It's not going to stop. It's a naturally occurring event that has overtaken our ability to stop its progression,'' Cable News Network quoted a Florida official.Officials said the forest fires, which assaulted a 190 km stretch of the state's east coast, damaged or destroyed at least 150 houses and burnt down more than 322,000 acres of land.
