Authorities ordered 30,000 residents of a north Florida county to leave yesterday as hundreds of wildfires raged, threatening towns along the state's east coast.
Police drove through the streets of Flagler County, hailing residents over loudspeakers, telling them to "get out now". A state official said three separate fires were likely to join into one giant blaze and the town of Bunnell was "seriously threatened".
The Flagler residents joined some 40,000 other Floridians ordered evacuated on Thursday as brush fires driven by dry winds assaulted a stretch of central and north Florida from Jacksonville to Cape Canaveral.
The director of the US Federal Emergency Management, Mr James Lee Witt, flew to the state capital to meet the state Governor, Mr Lawton Chiles, and Florida emergency managers as the US government ordered more resources into Florida to attack drought-induced fires that have charred some 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares) in a month.
While winds calmed slightly on the eastern seaboard, easing the immediate threat to Titusville, Cocoa Beach and Melbourne, fires continued to burn out of control in Daytona Beach and neighbouring Ormond Beach, in Volusia County, where about 100,000 acres have burned since late May, officials said.
"We don't have a handle on anything," said the Ormond Beach Fire Chief, Mr Barry Baker. "We're not going to get a handle on anything until we get some kind of tropical [rains]."
Calmer winds allowed some residents in Ormond and Daytona to return to their homes yesterday, though new neighbourhoods were also being added to the evacuation lists around the state.
No rain fell on Thursday in Volusia, Brevard and Flagler counties, the hardest hit areas. Four thousand firefighters are battling the blazes, which had sprung up in all of Florida's 67 counties, the state department of emergency management said.
"The situation in Brevard County remains grim," said Mr Tom Bartoek of Brevard Emergency Management. "We're saying 50 homes were lost, but we won't really know until things settle down more in the Scottsmoor area."
Smoke from the central Florida fires reached south to Fort Lauderdale, prompting officials to warn residents to stay indoors if they had respiratory problems.
The US government said it had pledged $60 million (£43 million) in aid to help battle the wildfires. Sixty-five fire engines and crews were en route from California to join the fight. Authorities said the drought conditions and lightning strikes had led to an average of 80 to 100 new fires each day in the state.
"We're experiencing fires like Florida has never seen before," Mr Chiles told residents.
He has banned the private use and public sale of fireworks in the state because of the threat of starting new fires, putting a damper on Fourth of July celebrations. On Thursday, a US District Court judge rejected an attempt by fireworks sellers to have the ban overturned.