Ga. Wildfire Approaches 100 Square Miles
Pastor Dale Morgan
Ga. Wildfire Approaches 100 Square Miles*
Sunday April 29, 2007 3:01 AM
WAYCROSS, Ga. (AP) - A few spot fires ignited Saturday afternoon across
a highway from a massive wildfire and firefighters struggled to put them
out before they could spread in the miles of tinder-dry forest beyond.
Several rural homes near the new fires were being evacuated Saturday
evening, Georgia Forestry Commission spokesman Eric Mosley said.
About 30 miles from Waycross, another fire broke out late Saturday in
Atkinson County and burned at least 700 acres, said Buzz Weiss,
spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. It posed no
immediate threat to people living in the area.
The larger fire has consumed nearly 100 square miles of drought-parched
forest and swampland in southeast Georgia since it ignited April 16.
Firefighters were patrolling a 16-mile stretch of U.S. 1, which links
Waycross with Jacksonville, Fla., and set controlled burns to prevent
the blaze from spreading into acres of forest beyond the road. The
highway remained closed.
``We are still in the throes of a very, very difficult effort and we
anticipate this fire burning intensely for at least another week - and
maybe another month,'' Weiss said.
Weary residents welcomed the shifting wind, which blew the smoke from
the towns and into the swampland Saturday morning.
About half the blaze was under control, emergency responders said. A
separate smaller blaze ignited near U.S. 301 after a passing train
leaked fuel, but Weiss said firefighters have contained all but 10
percent of that fire.
``Right now we just have a bad situation where we have no rain,
extremely low humidity and we're dealing on a day-to-day basis with wind
gusts and shifts,'' Weiss said. ``Those are the real recipes for a fire
disaster - and that's what we're coping with.''
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On the Net:
Georgia Homeland Security: http://www.gema.state.ga.us/
Incident Information System: http://www.inciweb.org/