CLERMONT, Fla. --
Heavy smoke from hundreds of acres of burning muck in Lake County prompted officials to close state Road 50 on Sunday.
The blaze had firefighters on the offensive to clear the air, and they did it with the help of ping-pong balls.
Flames and smoke engulfed the wetlands of Clermont as three muck fires burned beneath the ground.
Officials said it was all started by lightning Friday night.
"It's swampland, and it's more of a lot of muck, and a lot of brush that I currently don't think they can get to it to fight it," Clermont Police Department Lt. Eric Jensen said.
The Green Swamp is no stranger to small muck fires, but the current fire involves 700 acres.
"It could burn for three to four weeks if we left it unattended," Florida Division of Forestry spokesman Don Ruths said.
Fire crews launched an aerial attack using ping-pong balls filled with napalm to set a controlled burnout.
"The combination of napalm and the impact of the strike causes the ignition," Ruths said.
A stretch of S.R. 50 was closed because of heavy smoke and flying embers.
"Since we can't get our equipment in there, we're using the helicopter. So the helicopter will come in and using an aerial igniting type of device, small ping-pong balls that they drop, and once they hit the ground, they start the fires," Ruths said.
Officials said they use the ping-pong balls frequently during the year but never on a fire this large.
The technique gets the dry vegetation burned out in two hours and gets rid of the blinding smoke in a couple of days.
"Hopefully, the rains come in and keep the area wetted down," Ruths said.
The fire grew to 1,000 acres after the intentional burn was set.
The smoke should clear out in a few days, and S.R. 50 was reopened Sunday night.
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