SARASOTA COUNTY - A North Port community is fighting fire with fire.  Wednesday, La Casa Mobile Home Park got a controlled burn set by the Florida Division of Forestry.  The idea behind it is that you can better prevent a wildfire by first starting one.

Homeowners at La Casa happily watched their property along Myakka River State Park burn.  "It's an area they're concerned about 'cause it's so close to their homes.  We're gonna go ahead and burn it off so they don't have to worry about it any more," says Patrick Mahoney with the Division of Forestry.

The community there requested a prescribed burn from the Florida Division of Forestry.  Two acres of border ferns, shrubs, and bushes got torched with a slow burning oil-gasoline tank.  "We like to do a lot of controlled burns, especially here so we can keep this thinned out.  If a fire does happen it's not going to be as intense as it would be if it's 20 years of growth," says Mahoney.

So less foliage means less kindling, and less worry for the homeowners living nearby.  They were the ones who requested the burn by joining the state's Firewise program.

"Everybody was notified.  It went very nicely and the fire was easily controlled," says John Sargent, chairman of the La Casa Firewise Committee.

And homeowners won't have to worry about their beautiful backyard turning into scorched earth. 

Fire officials say there are other added benefits to controlled burns.  They keep the forest open -- discouraging illegal poaching, but inviting to wildlife...especially deer who like to snack on charred bark.

The controlled burn service is free to communities in the Firewise program.  For more information on Firewise, you can go on the Division of Forestry website at www.fl-dof.com/ or the Firewise website at www.firewise.org/.