I-10 Bridge Over Escambia Bay Reopens; Wildfire Contained

March 7, 2012

The I-10 bridge across Escambia Bay has reopened to traffic in both directions after being closed overnight due to smoke from two large fires in Santa Rosa County.

Florida Forest Service crews worked throughout the night to knock down smoke and mop up the I-10 Eagle’s Nest Fire in Santa Rosa County.

The south fire was 90 percent contained at 32 acres as of 6:30 am. The north fire was 95 percent contained at 10 acres.

Forestry will will continue to work on lines and ensure containment today and overnight tonight. Four Forestry brush trucks will be on scene today with two tractor/plow units.

Pictured top: Traffic begins to flow across the I-10 bridge about 6:25 Wednesday morning. Traffic backs on I-10 to exit at Scenic Highway just before 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Comments

15 Responses to “I-10 Bridge Over Escambia Bay Reopens; Wildfire Contained”

  1. rebekah wilson on March 7th, 2012 9:12 pm

    we live in jay fl and we left the walmart on creighton rd at 4:30pm heading home by going davis unaware of the traffic issue, (we also have a 4 yr old son that was in the truck with us that has severe asthma Thank God we have a portable nebulizer and i keep a set of his inhalers in my purse but thankfully he had no problems) and we didnt get home (in jay) till 7:46pm (man were we tired, son had already gave up lol)

  2. ED on March 7th, 2012 3:28 pm

    After sitting in traffic on I-10 eastbound with 2 kids and an infant (almost out of baby formula and diapers!), at 6:30 I made a split decision and crossed the median just before the guardrail and turned around. Ended up getting home to Milton by way of hwy 29 and then Quintette hwy. It turned out to be a great decision and didn’t take much longer than my usual route. It was very scary there for a while knowing we were literally trapped for potentially hours. I do hope everyone got home ok.

  3. EE on March 7th, 2012 10:19 am

    @ Jane fire departments had 3 boats with portable pumps and Northwest Florida Water Management had a Marsh Master (vehicle made for fighting marsh fires) at the island, couldn’t let it burn its self out due to CSX tracks that run across island.

  4. Larry on March 7th, 2012 7:51 am

    It took 35 minutes to get from pea ridge to Lowes in pace. There was no po po to help traffic move better. Some people took the high road and rode the shoulder…Like where is the po po when you need em. It took us 2 hours all together to get to allentown where we live. Needless to say it was exasperating.

  5. Jane on March 7th, 2012 6:53 am

    Why can’t they access the island? No fireboats? They just let it burn? Just curious.

  6. DeWayne on March 7th, 2012 5:37 am

    Still closed :(

  7. frequentflyer on March 6th, 2012 8:58 pm

    just flew in from ATL bout hr 1/2 ago, didn’t see any smoke from 1k feet, 90 looked like an LA free way, GLAD I live on the west side!

  8. Wharf Rat on March 6th, 2012 8:37 pm

    This traffic is really getting on my nerves. A lesser man would have gone ballistic by now. Oh wait…I’m part of the problem. Oh darn!!!!

  9. hawghead on March 6th, 2012 7:46 pm

    Brings back memories of the aftermath of Ivan…….

  10. thataway on March 6th, 2012 7:45 pm

    My wife was stuck west bound on I 10 East of Avalon. From the time of the start of the back up until now, is over 3 hours. and she still is not home. She has been averaging less than 5 miles per hour, and many times less than 2 miles an hour. Vehicles have run out of gas, big rigs broken down, and no response from Santa Rosa Sheriff’s department to facilitate traffic flow.

  11. Brooke on March 6th, 2012 7:24 pm

    I live about a mile off I-10 on the Avalon Blvd exit right off Avalon and it is completely backed up, slowly crawling. Going through pace isn’t much faster, take any backroads you can, they are being used but no backups through them. This is probably the worst route to be stuck on for through traffic, since it is usually always a bit slow going. Hope everyone gets home safely.

  12. Frank on March 6th, 2012 5:17 pm

    There is no good route to get to Milton from Pensacola right now. Traffic is backed up all through town. No one is going anywhere anytime soon.

  13. interesting on March 6th, 2012 4:52 pm

    My husband just called, and he is stuck in traffic on Hwy 90. Dont go that way if you dont have to.

  14. Megan on March 6th, 2012 3:25 pm

    How is this fire effecting Galt City Rd homes? which is right off the interstate near the dump

  15. DM on March 6th, 2012 2:57 pm

    I am not surprised, there are always “yard” burns in North Santa Rosa County; 3 out of 4 weekends my neighborhood smells like smoke. More information and literature should be distributed about burning restrictions; I think most people think it is OK to burn, even in a neighborhood and even on windy days.