Ash rained down, smoke blanketed the beach...

[funketeer]

A brush fire fills South Florida skies with smoke and ash -- and the dangerous conditions will likely continue today.

''I thought it was a volcano,'' joked Charlie Hines, managing director of the Loews Hotel in Miami Beach. ``For about an hour and a half or so, we got a lot of ashes and kind of an orange sky, so it was weird looking.''

Hines had actually seen it before -- as had most people in Florida. A wind-driven brush fire between Okeechobee Road and Krome Avenue had sent a pillar of smoke billowing toward the beach. The ash came with it.

The fire was reported about 11 a.m. Pushed by stiff winds, the flames blackened at least 1,500 acres of grass and brush. County and state Division of Forestry firefighters were still battling to bring it under control late Friday.

Today's weather is expected to be dry, with afternoon breezes, so the fire danger is likely to continue. Miami-Dade Fire Lt. Eugene Germain Jr. said firefighting efforts will continue this morning as needed, and firefighters will evaluate visibility on the roads to determine if any have to be closed.

Lt. Eric Baum, department spokesman for Miami-Dade Fire, said the cause had yet to be determined but added that conditions were favorable for a fire.

''We're in wildfire season; it's very dry, very cool with low humidity,'' he said, ``The weather's beautiful. But, it's literally a tinder box.''

No buildings had been burned, but the fire forced the evacuation of about 75 people at a small mobile home park, Joe's Fish Camp. No injuries were reported.

''It's actually far from the fire,'' said Cynthia Martinez, a Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue spokeswoman. ``It's just a precaution.''

The Red Cross opened a shelter at Barbara Goleman High School in Miami Lakes and the county provided shuttle service.

Krome Avenue was closed between Okeechobee Road and Southwest Eighth Street all afternoon and well into the evening. Okeechobee Road was closed from Florida's Turnpike north to Pines Boulevard in Broward County, about nine miles.

The inky black fumes of smoke created a smog-like haze over the turnpike. By nightfall, only street lights and a blue flash of highway patrol cars outlined the edges of the road.

Closed exits and streets only added to the evening traffic snarls, as commuters were forced to find alternate routes either heading north or east and doubling back.

Alex Peters, 27, of Homestead, was on his way home from work in Pembroke Pines when he ran into standstill traffic on U.S. 27.

''I saw everybody stopped, and I knew they were turning people around, so I just turned myself around,'' Peters said.

On U.S. 27 in Miami-Dade County, a line of 20 tractor trailers idled on the side of the road waiting to make U-turns to alternate routes.

One driver with an entrepreneurial bent hopped out of his produce-carrying semi and began walking along the side of the road holding a carton of strawberries. ''Three dollars each,'' he shouted.

But none of the grumpy and confused motorists took him up on the offer.

As the wind-borne smoke reached Biscayne Bay, David Treece was preparing an outdoor patio party at his sprawling home on Miami's Upper East Side. But he spent half an hour cleaning ash from the patio with a leaf blower.

''It even blew into the gazebo. We had to clean out ash from the seats,'' said Treece, who had about 20 guests from Argentina. ``It was kind of an oddity.''

The county Department of Environmental Resource Management did not detect unusually high pollutant levels.

In North Miami, Sharon Pilch eyed a looming gray sky and told her son to close all the doors to their canal-side home because it was going to rain. Then her husband pulled up to the bank in his 25-foot boat, covered in a film of ash.

''We looked up . . . and saw little pieces of ash. We hadn't noticed it before,'' Pilch said. ``It was amazing. The smell was horrific, you could tell something was burning.''

Doctors warned that people with respiratory problems such as asthma or emphysema should be careful to take their medications.

''This is not the day to forget to take them,'' said Dr. Bruce Krieger, director of intensive care at Mount Sinai Medical Center.

He said surgical masks would filter out large particles carried in the smoke. For people with the most severe conditions, he advised staying indoors.

Firefighters rake through forest ash looking for hot spots

[livin42nite]

Never seen that kind of stuff before, but here in miami lakes whole sky was dark this afternoon and up to now outside still got that smell.

[coltrane23]

I can smell it over here in the South Miami/Coral Gables area.............havent seen any ash though.

[tranzwhore]

the sun looks so cool behind the smoke clouds

[xxgrooveericxx]

Ashes all over my car yesterday and this morning...

No car wish this week

And the smell....anywhere in Miami I could smell it; Downtown, Miami Beach, South West Miami, Key Biscayne....it's crazy! Hopefully they can get the fire under control soon.

[funketeer]

I had no idea this was goin' on...until I walked out to go to lunch...some friends and I went to sushi siam, walked all the way from 17th and alton to euclid...right when ash was raining down...it was pretty crazy, I had never seen something like it.

[Bling]

its like that cheesy movie volcano