Evacuees briefed on fire status

Several evacuees assembled at the National Orange Show Events Center around 7 p.m. Friday to get a status report on the fires.
County administrative officer Mark Uffer told the crowd that assessment teams were working in the area to determine how many houses had been spared.
“We have teams working literally every hour of the day to get into the fire areas and find out which properties were destroyed, damaged or remain intact.
“One of the things that is very scary for teams is....they are actually being chased out by spot fires,” he said.
Uffer acknowledged at Friday’s community’s meeting that many in the crowd would be disappointed at the lack of specific information of which homes had survived.
He asked those at the meeting to remain confident in the county fire department and other county staffers. He said hopefully information would be released in the next few days with data that is 100 percent accurate.
--Andrew Edwards