EGMONT KEY, Fla. (WFLA) — Captain Hans Ruys is glad to be making trips to Egmont Key Park once again. The island reopened Friday after it had been closed for two days because of a fire.
“Egmont’s beautiful. It’s a jewel. I mean we are so fortunate to have this in our back yard,” the captain said.
But the conditions on the island are not so pristine. He’s had to detour Island Boat Adventures after the fire, started by lightning, got out of control.
“It’s sad cause we lost a lot of nesting birds and eggs and stuff like that and hopefully not too many turtles,” Ruys said.
The historic brick road leads to charred remains. What used to be lush greens, now burned trees and brush. In all, 80 acres were destroyed.
Friday tourists had a chance to walk the path.
“It’s scary. It looks like a lot of things could have died in that. This is already a preservation of a lot of creatures. It’s sad to see that it could just all be dead,” Trevor Vance from Kentucky said.
“You can smell it. It smells burned walking through and I don’t know. It’s just pretty sad,” Natalie Stout said.
But the captain said he’s not too worried. Fire officials said the fire is good in a way, to wipe out overgrown brush and invasive species.
“Long term. It’ll be a good thing. It’s sad to see it the way it is now. Sometimes that’s the way nature works,” Ruys said.
Fire officials ask tourists to stay on the path and out of the closed off areas.
