Hot Spots Spell Trouble Even As Fire Dies Down It Doesn’t Take Much to Rekindle Flames

By STEVE PATTERSON

TOTAL FIRE PERSONNEL874SIZE OF FIRE (ACRES)89,478PERCENT CONTAINED75%ESTIMATED DATE OF CONTAINMENTMay 15

WAYCROSS – Fires scorching two Southeast Georgia counties marched through parched swampland Wednesday, threatening some houses for a few hours.

Firefighters settled in for weeks of new work, and forestry officials said it will take rain, not firefighters, to put out the last flames.

In many places, fire has moved into layers of peat or pine needles covering the ground. It could stay hidden there for days or weeks ready to spread, said Robin Cole, a Georgia Forestry Commission spokeswoman.

There’s no way for fire crews to soak all the peat in a low, swampy area that has dried out.

Schools in Ware and Coffee counties were closed Wednesday because of smoke, and the state public health agency warned people in six counties to stay indoors and be careful about exerting themselves if the air in their areas was bad.

The fire had torched 89,000 acres in Charlton and Ware counties by Wednesday and was about 75 percent contained.

About 900 firefighters have been on the scene, including about 120 prison inmates pulled from fire stations at prisons statewide. Wednesday, half of the inmates mopped up stubborn fires near Swamp Road on the western edge of Waycross. Some of the same crews were there two weeks earlier when gusty winds pushed flames from treetop to treetop in what firefighters call a crown fire.

“We were in a wall of flame when we first got here. … It was like something you see on TV from California,” said Willie Rubertino, an inmate at Autry State Prison in Mitchell County.

A sea breeze Tuesday night rekindled flames, threatening about 10 houses, Cole said.

She said most of the homes already were vacant but authorities told people in others to leave.

The fire crews stopped the flames and returned Wednesday morning to wet down hot spots.

“We need a good rain,” said David Emery, a station chief from Hays State Prison in North Georgia, who led six inmates into a patch of burned woods behind a Baptist church. Emery and five of the men used axes and rakes to puncture and lift duff, a hot soot-covered layer of soft unburned debris covering the ground. As they poked the duff, oxygen flowed in and flames appeared while inmate James Lee walked from man to man, squirting water from a five-gallon container strapped to his back.

They left when the water was gone, knowing they might be back soon to hose down the same ground.

Aircraft dumped water close by.

Despite the effort, “Until we have a substantial rainfall, we have the possibility of a flare-up,” said James Ginn, a spokesman for the Ware County Commission.

Although the area was declared a disaster zone by Gov. Sonny Perdue, people who had to leave their homes – or who had homes destroyed – can’t seek federal disaster relief like people whose homes are destroyed in hurricanes.

The only government aid so far has been funding to reimburse local governments for 75 percent of the firefighting costs, Ginn said.

In Charlton County, the fire was still consuming woods in the Okefenokee Swamp and crews spent the day cutting breaks to keep it from spreading beyond there, said Robert Beanblossom, a spokesman for the joint information office.

A new management team for the fire crews was getting established and is scheduled to run the firefighting effort for two weeks. If the fire is still burning then, a new management team will be sent in as relief.

The fire is part of a wave of woods blazes burning stronger than usual in eastern states this year, said Steve Spangler, a medic from Dublin, Va., hired by emergency managers to travel from fire to fire. He is scheduled to be in South Georgia for most of the month.

“The East Coast is ripping this year. … North Carolina has them going. Virginia has them going,” he said.steve.patterson@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4263BURN BAN ISSUEDThe Charlton County Commission issued a burn ban Wednesday enforceable by the sheriff. Any violation could result in a $1,000 fine. Only barbecue grills are exempt.

(c) 2007 Florida Times Union. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.