More than 1,100 homes have been evacuated in several counties on the Florida Panhandle after three fast-moving wildfires on Sunday continued to resist containment efforts.
The Adkins Avenue fire, which broke out on Friday and began near Panama City, Fla., had burned more than 1,400 acres and was 35 percent contained in Bay County, the Florida Forest Service said.
A much larger fire, the Bertha Swamp Road fire, had swept into Bay and Calhoun Counties after it began on Friday, the Forest Service said. It had burned around 9,000 acres and was 10 percent contained as of Sunday afternoon, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news briefing.
“That’s a big boy and it’s raging very quickly,” he said.
The governor said that, given the windy and dry conditions on Sunday, “more serious fires” were possible. “Unfortunately, we’re not going to get any relief in terms of the weather,” he added.
Mr. DeSantis said that some emergency responders had been injured, but it was not clear how many were hurt or the nature of their injuries.
Shortly after the news briefing, the Forest Service said on Twitter that Bay County was battling yet another fire, the Star Avenue fire, which was spreading rapidly and had already covered more than 160 acres.
The Adkins Avenue fire was caused by someone burning debris in a backyard, Valerie Sale, a spokeswoman for Bay County, said on Saturday. It was not clear what started the Star Avenue or Bertha Swamp Road fires, though the Forest Service said that windy conditions had driven both fires.
In 2018, Hurricane Michael left behind thousands of acres of dead trees, which served as tinder for this weekend’s fires, Ms. Sale said.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee said on Twitter on Sunday that the Bertha Swamp Road fire was burning near where the eye of the hurricane had passed.
On Saturday, Ms. Sale estimated that at least two homes had been destroyed and as many as 12 had been damaged. She said that number was likely to climb.
Bay County issued an evacuation order on Friday that remained in effect on Sunday. The local school district said on Facebook that three of its schools would be closed on Monday because teachers and students who evacuated may not be able to get to school.
On Sunday afternoon, after the Star Avenue fire broke out, the Forest Service said an evacuation order was issued for the Clifford Chester Sims State Veterans’ Nursing Home. Residents were being taken to either a temporary shelter or a nearby hospital.
On Sunday, the Forest Service said that there were nearly 150 active wildfires burning more than 12,100 acres across the state, up from 7,100 acres from the day before. The Forest Service warned on Friday that fire danger levels were elevated statewide, citing “critically low humidity.”
Wildfires are a well-known menace in the American West, though it appears that threat could be making its way east.
Recent research has suggested that heat and dryness associated with global warming has been causing fires to grow bigger and stronger, with wildfires becoming a year-round possibility.