Firefighters from Tennessee and Georgia worked Wednesday to get ahead of a two-day wildfire burning about 1,200 acres where Marion and Dade counties meet near Nickajack Lake, foresters said.
“It apparently was an arson fire,” said Jim Dale, assistant district forester for the Tennessee Division of Forestry, and Tennessee firefighters saved four structures and a church.
There are about 10 to 15 homes “in the line of fire right now,” Troy Floyd, assistant district manager for the Georgia Forestry Commission’s Coosa District, said early Wednesday afternoon.
The fire began around noon Tuesday on Macedonia Road, he said. About 30 forestry firefighters, with mutual aid help from the Dade County Fire Department, worked to contain the blaze and secure areas around threatened homes.
The fire was “going to be probably 2,000 acres by the time we get it all done,” said Heath Morton, Dade County chief ranger for the Georgia Forestry Commission.