Over 22,000 acres burned in Florida as wildfires rage

By Mallika Kallingal and Jamiel Lynch, CNN

At least 37 active wildfires have burned over 22,000 acres in Florida, according to the Florida Forest Service. Of those, 26 fires have been contained, the agency added.

The three largest fires are burning in the Everglades in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The L39 and 2Alpha fires burning in Palm Beach County have torched approximately 16,550 acres, according to the state’s forest service. And in nearby Broward County, the 2Bravo fire in the Everglades has burned about 5,650 acres.

There are no reports of injuries or structures burning in these fires.

Meantime, about 300,000 acres have burned this year in New Mexico — more than the past two full years combined.

The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire — the biggest US fire this year and the second-largest in New Mexico in at least 30 years — had torched more than 165,000 acres by Thursday, destroying dozens of homes and could threaten more than 15,000 more this week, officials said.

Much of the Southwest has been under a prolonged, severe drought fueled by the climate crisis that has fostered critical fire conditions. Drought conditions worsened over the past week across much of the Southwest and South, deepening a water crisis and fueling fires across several states, the US Drought Monitor wrote in its weekly summary.

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