Georgia Forestry rangers were working late Monday to put out a large brush fire spreading on Dug Gap Mountain, forestry officials said.
The fire, which broke out near Chattanooga Road and Mill Creek Road, was spotted by an interstate passer-by early Sunday, Whitfield County police said.
The blaze covers nearly 10 acres, said Justin Ridley, a dispatcher with the Georgia Forestry district office in Rome, Ga.
Rangers were struggling to control the blaze because the area where it was burning is steep, rocky terrain and the ground is extremely dry, said Justin Ridley, a dispatcher with the Georgia Forestry district office in Rome.
“We are having access problems,” he said. “Bulldozers can’t reach it. It’s an erratic fire, and it’s hard to know what the fire is going to do next because of shifting winds.”
Earlier in the day, the Georgia Aviation Authority send a helicopter to dump water on the spreading fire, but many rangers were expected to have to work into the night.
Officials said they hoped to have the fire contained by late this evening, but several days of cleanup will still be needed to mop up what the fire leaves behind.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, officials said.
Joan Garrett has been a staff writer for the Times Free Press since August 2007. Before becoming a general assignment writer for the paper, she wrote about business, higher education and the court systems. She grew up the oldest of five sisters near Birmingham, Ala., and graduated with a master's and bachelor's degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama. Before landing her first full-time job as a reporter at the Times Free Press, she ...
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