SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – Crews worked Wednesday to contain a wildfire that destroyed a family’s mobile home and several other buildings as it burned about 250 acres in a densely wooded area of rural southeast Georgia.
Firefighters had the blaze 80 percent contained Wednesday morning, said Wendy Burnett, spokeswoman for the Georgia Forestry Commission. It had charred less than half of a square mile after breaking out Tuesday afternoon in Brantley County, about 90 miles southeast of Savannah, where conditions have been unusually dry compared to a normal spring.
Fire crews equipped with bulldozers and a water buffalo, a large vehicle used to transport water to remote areas, were reinforcing fire breaks plowed around the perimeter of the fire Wednesday and using hoses to douse any smoldering hotspots to keep them from reigniting, Burnett said.
“They’ve done a tremendous job getting it under control,” Burnett said. “We’re going to be out there monitoring for the rest of the week or until fire officials are satisfied that it’s completely out.”
She credited volunteer and full-time firefighters from six local departments with saving 45 structures in the fire’s path Tuesday while helicopters dropped buckets of water on the flames from the air.