The winds shifted south days after the “Moon Fish” wildfire broke out, wafting smoke over the Florida Keys, perhaps the only hint locally of the enormous blaze that has threatened the northernmost portion of mainland Monroe County.
That same fire that ignited on May 7 has burned nearly 26,000 acres south of U.S. 41, about a mile away from the Miccosukee Reservation Area and Loop Road.
The fire, which experts expect to burn through the month of May despite recent rains and an early tropical system, still poses a risk to not only federal park assets but also to the smattering of camps and homes of mainland Monroe residents who live along the mostly unpaved road that reaches deep into Big Cypress National Preserve.