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 WAYCROSS, Ga. (AP) - Firefighters made slow progress Thursday against a pair of wildfires that covered nearly 50 square miles of tinder-dry forest and destroyed 18 homes. Authorities asked approximately 6,000 people to evacuate.
The fires in southeast Georgia threatened the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, one of the nation's best-preserved wetland areas, said Eric Mosley, spokesman for the Georgia Forestry Commission.
One of the fires jumped a fire break Thursday into the Okefenokee Swamp and sent a thick haze of smoke wafting through Waycross, a city of 15,300 along the swamp's northern edge, said Robin Cole, a spokeswoman for the Forestry Commission. Some 5,000 residents there were asked to leave because of heavy smoke blowing into town. Earlier, 1,000 were ordered to leave.
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