Nahunta, Georgia– Nahunta, Georgia (AFP) – forest fires The tear in the south forced hundreds of Georgia residents to flee in minutes, leaving them distraught over the homes and animals they left behind.
the Fires that spread This week, during a severe drought in Georgia and Florida, smoke blanketed cities hundreds of miles (kilometres) away, prompting more air quality warnings Thursday across the Southeast.
Driven by strong winds and low humidity, the two largest fires in south Georgia spread rapidly over the past two days and destroyed more than 50 homes in rural areas. But the growing threat led to more evacuations and school closures on Wednesday.
“I don’t know if I have a house standing or not,” said Denise Stevens, who had to evacuate due to the Brantley County fire near the Georgia coast. “I know what you took from others, but I don’t know what you left standing.”
The Brantley County fire, which caused a lot of structural damage, remained stable overnight, the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
“While this stabilization is encouraging, wind conditions remain unpredictable and could cause conditions to change rapidly,” according to the update, which said the fire was approximately 15% contained.
It is not yet known how the wildfires started, but both the lower half of Georgia and northern Florida Very dry.
The National Weather Service warned drivers in southeast Georgia early Thursday that visibility could drop to a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) on some highways as smoke from wildfires moves through the region.
Visibility was particularly bad in Clinch and Echols counties — near the Pineland Road fire, the largest in the state, the weather service said.
In Florida, firefighters were battling more than 130 wildfires, most of them in the northern half of the state. These were smaller than the fires to the north.
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Associated Press reporter Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed.