been warned: "Stay indoors -- your lives depend on it.'' Almost 2,000 fires have scorched nearly half a million acres in central and northeast Florida.

More than 100,000 people have been evacuated -- spending the Independence Day holiday in shelters -- 200 homes have burned down and 100 people have been injured.

No deaths have been reported.

But Deborah Mallory-Hunter, from Warwick, hardly dares venture outside her house because the deadly smoke sends her into coughing fits.

The 42-year-old mother-of-two, who now lives and works in Melbourne, north east Palm Bay, said: "It's been pretty bad.

"The other day I nearly had a wreck on the highway. Smoke from the fire has been so thick that visibility on the road is practically zero and I nearly crunched into this guy who didn't have his lights on.

"I had to swerve to avoid him. Now we're being advised to stay at home if at all possible.

"The fumes and the smoke are affecting us, although we're away from the fires, and I have a thyroid problem which is making me cough worse now.

"It's very hard to breathe at times and I just find myself having to rush back into the house when the fumes get that heavy.

"Thankfully I've still been able to get to work but the worrying thing is for my children, who are 14 and 17.

"So far, they haven't been too badly affected but we're practically housebound for our own safety.'' Fellow Bermudian Beverly Jacobs-Lakes, 36, said TV and radio news broadcasts were warning everybody in the affected region to stay indoors.

"We're confined to our home,'' said Beverly, a freelance writer who has lived in Florida for the last ten years.

"We don't expect to be evacuated like lots of other people have been but these fires have been so freak that that could happen at any time.

"Our homes are in the middle of large forested areas and if lightning strikes them, whoosh, there's a huge fire.

"We live in a small place called Deltona and my husband Robert, whose a systems analyst, was sent home from work at 10 a.m. on Friday because the highways were so thick with smoke.

"Everybody came home because otherwise they would have been stuck in their offices. Now we're all stuck in the house.

"I have a five-year-old boy who I am worried about but the best we can do for him is keep him indoors with us.

"We've battened down the hatches, so to speak, and we're just praying things get better soon.'' She said the Pepsi 500 motor race at Daytona had to be cancelled, even though all the town's hotels were fully booked with spectators.

Authorities have been frantically searching for emergency accommodation after drafting in hundreds of extra firefighters from North Carolina, she added.

And those who have lost their homes -- temporarily or permanently -- have been forced to stay in shelters or cars.

Teams of expert firefighters tackling the blazes are hoping the disaster will come under control later this week, with weather forecasters predicting higher humidity, brief showers and cool breezes.

Meteorologists are also hoping a tropical storm will hit the region to drench the flames.

More on Florida: Page 9