Crews are still working on yet another brush fire at Pasco County's Starkey Wilderness Park.  

  • Starkey Wilderness Park closed after brush fire
  • The fire burned more than 25 acres
  • This is the third fire in the past two weeks

It was calm at the park's entrance Sunday afternoon. The park closed to the public as crews worked to control the third significant fire in the park in the last two weeks.

The Sandy Branch fire, which was started by a lightning strike Saturday, has burned over 25 acres.

Last week, nearly 2300 acres were scorched from another fire and the week before that, a third fire burned about 40 acres. That one is fully contained.

The Florida Forest Service said because of the amount of crews they have in the area and the widespread unstable conditions, it's not safe for people to come back into the park.

"We still have dozers and engines in here working so we have heavy equipment moving around. There is some interior smoke and interior fire in some of these and they'll be mopping up that Sandy Branch for a while trying to get that smoke reduced. And also there's falling trees,” Judith Tear with the Florida Forest Service said.

Despite the fires burning, the fire danger for Pasco County did fall after the range last night, now classified as a low risk.

But, the Forest Service said the area is not out of the woods yet. They want to remind everyone that outdoor burning is still banned here in the county as well as throughout the region.

"It was a good rain. But we're still far short on rainfall. Later in the week it's supposed to be hot and 94 and dry. You can see we had rain there was lightning there still was a fire," Tear said.

"I know when you get a little bit of rain I want to run out there I want to burn my leaves and stuff like that. I'm going to ask you to hold off doing that because it still is dry and it's still very, very windy and if it gets away you, you're responsible for that fire," she added.

Right now it isn't clear when Starkey Park will reopen. The newest fire, dubbed the Sandy Branch fire, is now 80% contained. And Pasco County officials say the Suncoast Bike Trail is open, but all Starkey trails are closed.