NATION : Everglades Brushfires Rout 745
MIAMI — Brushfires in the Everglades west of Miami forced the evacuation of an immigration detention center today and spread a blanket of acrid smoke over the area, prompting warnings for people with respiratory illnesses to remain inside or wear surgical masks.
Flames reached within a little more than a mile of the Krome Avenue Detention center west of Miami, forcing the evacuation of 745 people to a baseball stadium. The facility housed 220 people more than its capacity of 525 and included 261 refugees picked up in a wooden boat off Miami’s Fisher Island Monday.
The 12,000-acre blaze west of Miami was the largest of several wildfires in Florida but was contained. Another 8,000 acres fire in south Florida and a 3,735 mile blaze to the northwest had not been contained, officials said.
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