By Billy Bruce
VALDOSTA — Despite the long, soaking rains brought by Tropical Storm Barry, wildfires in Georgia and Florida continue to burn and will probably produce more smoke-filled days unless similar rain events come soon, a spokesman for the Georgia Forestry Commission said Sunday.
Many areas received as much as 5 inches of rain during Barry’s pass through the region Friday night and Saturday, but most areas averaged 3 to 4 inches, and others, 2 inches or less, said Larry Morris, a spokesman working in the Georgia Forestry Commission’s Joint Information Center in Waycross. Valdosta received 4.07 inches of rain, according to the Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network.
“(Barry) was an excellent rain event,” Morris said. “If we could get several days of that type of rain, you would see a dramatic difference. But if you get an event that then is separated by more days of drying out, you get back to the same situation you had before. The danger is not gone. The probability for smoke definitely exists.”
If the wind is blowing toward the west, Valdosta will get more smoke, he said.
The rains did help firefighters bring more burning acreage under control. Any chance for firefighters to get ahead of the flames will also help slow down the damage and reduce the smoke. More than 600,000 acres in South Georgia and North Florida have been destroyed by the fires. Even during the rain, flames four feet high were still burning in the Big Turnaround fire, which has burned 405,638 acres and is 70 percent contained, Morris said.
“The rain helped a lot,” Morris said. “The fire is divided into several sections. The Sweat Farm Road Fire, which is the fire that started this whole incident, really was helped by the rainfall. It was reported (Sunday) morning as being 98 percent contained. But that’s not the same as ‘controlled’ or ‘extinguished.’ ”
“Contained” means that the fire is burning within the breaks that have been established so that it can’t spread further, Morris explained. The Georgia Forestry Commission states that 87,801 acres already have been destroyed in that section. Morris said the
commission planned to send helicopter flights Sunday night over the area to use infrared imaging to map hot spots so firefighters could concentrate on those areas.
The Big Turnaround fire is in the Okefenokee Swamp, where state park officials report that 78 percent of the swamp area has burned and continues to burn, Morris said.
Unless more long, soaking, steady rains come, even the thunderstorms projected in the near-term forecasts could bring lightning strikes that might re-ignite controlled areas that are now drying out from forecast wind gusts of 20 to 25 miles per hour, as high as 30 miles per hour, Morris said.
“The wind creates a lot of drying out. The soil will start drying out again. Foliage on the trees will dry out and drop to the ground, into fire breaks, creating more fuel which could start burning again,” he said. “We’re really afraid people will become complacent and think the fire is out. That’s just not the case.”
Although the higher humidity forecasted this coming week will help firefighters continue to get more control, the thunderstorms that could result would bring lightning. A lightning strike is what started the Big Turnaround fire in the swamp, Morris noted.
“As the temperatures rise into the high 80s and hit 90 degrees, there’s the potential for thunder storms and lightning. You have to contend with that also,” he said. “It’s a very complicated situation.”
The Georgia Forestry Commission also reported Sunday that the Florida Bugaboo fire in Baker and Columbia counties, north of I-10 and east of State Road 441, is not extinguished despite receiving 3 inches of rain over the area. That fire has burned 108,754 acres and is 100 percent contained. Plans call for fire crews to continue with mop-up, line improvement, structure protection and to begin rehab in some areas. Fire activity was expected to be minimal there Sunday, the report said.
For information on roads, visit www.georgianavigator.com for Georgia or www.fhp.state.fl.us for Florida. The Georgia Forestry Commission has more information at www.gatrees.org.
