Florida is flat. When you see smoke down here, it looks like it's really close but not always. On Feb. 11th, 2008 we saw a lot of smoke off to the south of us. That direction is where the center of our town is and it looked like the whole town was burning up.

I've never been a fire chaser. Even when I was a kid (a million years ago ) I didn't follow fire engines. But this was so big I had to go check it out.

Town was fine and then I saw a rescue vehicle so I followed it. Somewhere along the way I lost him and ended up in a neighborhood where the people were actually hosing down the roofs of their houses! Behind them was the smoke and the biggest flames I've ever seen.

I parked out on a main street and walked down an access road into a factory complex.



As I came around the corner I thought I had found Hell on Earth.



What was burning was a cardboard box factory. Because the fire was so hot, all the heat was going straight up. At times I was only about 10 feet away from the fire and, except for the stuff raining down on us, there was no heat.









The building was totally destroyed but the good news was that there wasn't a single injury and no other structures were damaged.

Truly the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed!


News Story:
Auburndale Box Manufacturing Plant Still Burning | theledger.com | The Ledger | Lakeland, FL

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Awesome pictures.

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Laura
Please visit my blog
http://mylifeinlaurasworld.blogspot.com/