The two Bonita Springs brush fires have burned seventy six acres between them, both are now at least ninety five per cent contained, and the fire chief says what is left is hot spots sitting inside the burn

Both brush fires burning north of Bonita Beach Road in Bonita Springs are at least ninety five per cent contained, and the two of them together have burned seventy six acres, WINK News reports.

Bonita Springs Fire Control Chief Greg DeWitt told the station that what is still burning is inside ground that has already burned.

"There's still hot spots that are all mostly in the burned area, so we're not worried about it creeping out or starting another one again," Chief DeWitt said. "If the wind cooperates and we get a good jump on it this morning before the winds and these afternoon storms come in, hopefully even put a knock on it and keep everybody safe."

Three crews are out monitoring conditions alongside the Florida Forest Service.

Seventy six acres is the two fires added together

This desk has reported the larger fire at seventy acres since Monday evening, so the seventy six needs a word.

It is not growth. WINK gives seventy six as the combined figure and puts the components at about seventy acres for the larger fire near Radio Tower Road and about five for the second, which is north and east of it.

Gulf Coast News has not updated since ten o'clock Monday night and still carries the two separately, at seventy acres and ninety five per cent for the first and 6.1 acres and ninety eight per cent for the second. Those add to 76.1.

Neither newsroom is reporting that these fires got any bigger overnight.

A likely cause, for the first time

Nobody had offered a cause for these fires until now, and this desk said so in each of its four earlier reports.

Fire officials told WINK that the fires started Monday afternoon when a quick storm moved through, and that lightning likely sparked them.

Read that as it is given. It is a likely cause attributed to fire officials, not a determination, and no agency has published a finding in writing. Chief DeWitt separately said the dry grass and the ongoing drought are what let the fire move as quickly as it did.

The power poles are the part that outlasts the fire

The fire damaged several power poles.

Chief DeWitt said Florida Power and Light has already been out to look at the damage, but that because there is only one road in and out, the utility crews are waiting for firefighters to tell them it is safe to go in and make the repairs.

That is how a fire that is ninety five per cent contained can still be the reason somebody has no power this afternoon, and it is why the request to stay out of the area has not lifted. Crews, dozers and utility trucks are working off a single road.

Crews also had a nursery nearby with about a dozen workers on it, and Chief DeWitt said keeping the flames off that property was one of their biggest priorities.

No evacuation was ordered, no structure has been reported lost and no injury has been reported.

What is still missing

The Florida Forest Service has published nothing in writing about these fires at any point since Monday afternoon.

Every acreage and containment figure the public has, including the ones in this item, has reached it through television newsrooms relaying the agency. That is the honest state of the sourcing. It is not a reason to disbelieve the numbers, only a reason to hold them the way they are offered.