FILM SHOWS PLANE SPRAYING WATER, HEAVY SMOKE, PLANE SWOOPING OVER LAKE FOR RELOAD. DROPPING MORE WATER.




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Weary firefighters continued Wednesday (April 21) to fight blaze after blaze ravaging Everglades National Park, near Miami.

As soon as they extinguished one fire, another broke out.

The Weather Bureau said there was no immediate hope of rain to relieve the vast areas of parched land, which is normally a swamp teeming with wildlife.

Smoke from the blazes have caused chain-reaction traffic accidents on nearby highways.

The two and one-half million residents of Southeast Florida's so-called Gold Coast were told that their wells were near or below sea level.

Authorities ordered a stop to lawn-watering and other non-essential uses of water.

South Florida has received only three inches of rain since October and less than half an inch since January.