The Florida Forest Service was working to extinguish a small wildfire in a Molino swamp late Tuesday morning.
Escambia Fire Rescue was dispatched about 8:30 a.m. to a logging equipment fire in the area of Crabtree Church Road and South Highway 99.
The equipment was located well off the road in a swamp, and the fire spread into the surrounding area. The Florida Forest Service responded with one tractor in order to contain the small wildfire, which was estimated at about one-quarter of an acre. A second tractor was on standby just in case the first tractor became stuck in the swamp.
‘It was in a very, very wet swamp, and it was hard to make any progress,” Florida Forest Service spokesman Joe Zwierzchowski said.
He said a Forest Service helicopter “happened to be in the area on training exercises."