West Miami-Dade brush fire scorches over 6,000 acres

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Good morning to you South Florida. I'm Eric Yatsi >> and I'm Alexis Frasier. We begin with a brush fire alert.

[00:00:05]>> Highway 41 fire remains ablaze in West Miami date. Officials confirming that fire has scorched more than 6,000 acres.

[00:00:12]Crews are working trying to contain those flames. They've been burning since Saturday.

[00:00:17]>> And we have team coverage this morning.

[00:00:19]Weather authority Brandon our is here to give us a breakdown and the fire plus your local forecast.

[00:00:24]>> Let's start with local Gabrielle Arzola.

[00:00:26]has been near that scene all throughout the morning watching as crews have tried to fight this fire. Gabby, what are you seeing right now?

[00:00:34]>> Hey there, guys. Good morning. Yeah, well, like you said, we have been here all morning really seeing this fire evolve. Now that the fog has cleared about an hour and a half ago, we can get a better idea of what we're looking at now. Take a look. You see those clouds?

[00:00:46]Well, those clouds are actually hot spots. And it's pretty wide across the Everglades, too. It's been 5 days since the fire started and the damage has multiplied to more than 6,000 acres overnight.

[00:01:01]New drone video this morning of the brush fire now miles away. As the fog clears, acres of black and saw grass stretched through the Everglades. In just 24 hours, the fire grew from 450 acres to 5,000. That's nearly 4,000 football fields reduced to ash.

[00:01:21]Officials have closed a large stretch of the Everglades National Park, forcing nearby businesses, including Coopertown Airboats, Safari Park, and Gator Park to shut down.

[00:01:31]>> He hovers down low enough so that snorkel goes in the water, sucks up all the water into his tanks. Takes about 30, 40 seconds.

[00:01:38]>> As the sun set on Tuesday, crews kept pushing the flames back. Helicopters dropping hundreds of gallons of water, targeting several hot spots. Our cameras capturing bright orange flames burning in the distance. Firefighters say the flames are tearing through dry sawrass.

[00:01:56]>> And then this wind has been blowing more to the south.

[00:01:59]>> Ezra Van is a volunteer storm spotter with the National Weather Service and says drought conditions and steady winds are fueling these flames.

[00:02:08]>> Wind, humidity, and rain are the three biggest factors you look for. Uh if the wind does pick up, the fire is going to move faster. If the humidity drops, uh, the fire will burn faster as well. And if a rainstorm comes in, which is a possibility, it will very much slow the fire down.

[00:02:28]>> Yeah, I mean certainly a lot of factors come to play when we talk about this fire and like he said, especially the wind, which is why we have our weather authority, uh, Brandon or sharing us.

[00:02:40]Really what are we looking at here? I mean, standing out here, the wind has actually been pretty still, but I'm coming to learn anything could possibly change.

[00:02:48]>> Yeah, once the sun gets going, Gabby, and we start getting the uh temperatures to rise, you'll see the winds pick up.

[00:02:53]You'll definitely notice that, but we're expecting that wind shift late tonight.

[00:02:57]So, instead of the smoke blowing into the Everglades, this is going to be a much bigger problem for us here in the metro. And we're going to start smelling that smoke. This is the fire perimeter.

[00:03:06]Clearly on radar you can see the smoke plume coming from this really starting to pick up over the last couple of hours. Each one of these fire icons is a hot spot measured by satellite. So you can clearly see how the fire started up here towards the highway and has made its way to the southwest yesterday. But it has been growing in size. I've already seen that. So it's probably much higher than that estimated 6,600 acres so far. They're going to be worried about this northwestern corner today.

[00:03:32]That's what they're going to try and suppress to keep this from spreading back towards Highway 41, which we'll try to do today. Humidity has already gone from 87% at 6 a.m. down to 60%, it's taking a nose dive. The smoke is going to be pretty thick over Tamiami Trail.

[00:03:46]Wouldn't be surprised to see some intermittent closures there. I would just take Alligator Rally and avoid it completely. By late tonight, we're talking about just before midnight.

[00:03:54]Smoke is already starting to push into our inland areas and by tomorrow morning, it's right on top of us. Parts of us will smell a strong smell of smoke tomorrow morning. We'll have reduced air quality throughout the day and that smoke will be with us for the next several days as long as it's still burning out there. We need some rain over it. Couple of showers offshore trying to move in, maybe a stray sprinkle or two, maybe a light shower.

[00:04:15]Miami Beach to downtown Miami, but rain chances are low today. So, when do we finally pick up some rain? I'll go over that in the 7-day forecast. Plus, record heat on there, too. A busy forecast ahead.