Fire rips through South Gulf Cove in Charlotte County

New photos emerge of how thick the smoke was at a brush fire that threatened homes. You could hardly see more than a few feet in front of you at one point.

Charlotte County Public Safety posted pictures on Facebook to give people an idea of how hard it was to fight the flames in South Gulf Cove on Thursday.

WINK News reporter Marcello Cuadra spoke to a man who didn’t leave until he absolutely had to.

The view from the WINK News drone was not a pretty one of the South Gulf Cove community in Charlotte County. Gates were destroyed and shades of green turned to shades of gray. A brush fire on Thursday caused all of this damage.

Cody Abbott said firefighters wanted him to leave his home but he couldn’t. At least, not right away. He couldn’t. “A lot of fire, a lot of smoke, a lot of fire, and my son called me,” Abbott said. “I was running around checking job sites, and he said you might wanna get over here to this house on leafy way. It’s surrounded by fire.”

For Abbott, that house he mentioned was the result of multiple months of hard work. “It’s not the first fire I’ve been close to, but it’s the first fire I’ve been close to in the house I just built, closes in a week. We didn’t want it to go up in smokes. So, both my boys, Tyler and Tanner, and I stayed out here and tried to keep it away from the house the best we could,” said Abbott.

But, when the fire jumped the road into the cul de sac, he and his sons thought maybe that was a sign to leave. “Okay, maybe we better get out of here,” Abbott said.

Now, people see what brush fire can do in such a short period of time. Randy Kuhens lives nearby and saw what the fire left behind. “A lot of different smells, a lot different out here this morning. I’ve noticed a lot of wildlife that’s been displaced. I’ve seen several armadillos and some snakes and some things,” Kuhens said.

“So, no telling what’s been displaced. I don’t know how it got started. I have no idea,” said Kuhens.

The fire burned 42 acres of land, but, in the end, no homes were damaged. The cause of this fire remains under investigation.