PALM BAY, Fla. — It’s been a busy week for Palm Bay firefighters battling multiple brush fires.

The city just issued a burn ban this afternoon.

Dry conditions are making things ripe for fires to break out.

Palm Fay Fire Engine 9 currently doesn’t have a home port. A future fire station will be built in the fast-growing area of Babcock Street and St. John’s Heritage Parkway.

For now, it’s a four-man show — lieutenant, driver and two firefighters inside a 100-square-foot truck.

“We live out of it 10-12 hours a day, running the southeast part of the city,” says Lt. Kyle Koshinski.

The closest station is 10 to 15 minutes away, so it cuts the response time in half.

Their territory is a mix of large new neighborhoods, farmland, and a portion of I-95.

They get a variety of calls like structure fires, vehicle crashes and brush fires.

That includes an 8-acre brush fire that broke out Wednesday afternoon.

One was on Onyx Drive, which got close to houses and forced people inside 20 homes to evacuate.

Police say one of their officers was checking on a reported homeless camp in the woods near the railroad tracks.

They believe the cruiser’s exhaust sparked the tall dry brush, catching the car on fire.

That ignited other brush in the woods, and at one point, flames were burning up trees.

Some of the crew’s time is spent talking to homeowners who can play their part by keeping their lots clear of brush with homes at least 15 feet away from woods.

“Where you have a large gap between the structure itself and the wooded lot, that’s the buffer zone that we’re looking for,” says Koshinski. “Gives us that extra time to do our job.”

The burn ban just issued allows Palm Bay Police to cite homeowners who violate the ban.