Wildfires burning across the southeastern U.S. intensified Wednesday after destroying nearly 50 homes in southeastern Georgia and forcing evacuations in some communities.
Some of the biggest fires were popping up between and around Jacksonville, Florida, and along Georgia's coast. A long drought, low humidity and strong winds are fueling the blazes, and Florida is facing one of its worst fire seasons in decades.
In southeastern Georgia, 47 homes were lost Tuesday in a fast-moving wildfire, according to Joey Cason, the Brantley County manager.
"There were literally evacuations that were taking place with people removed by our EMS service from the porch as the fire was in their backyard," Cason told WJAX-TV.
Evacuations were underway in multiple communities, the Georgia Forestry Association said Wednesday morning. "This is a serious and evolving situation," said Tim Lowrimore, president & CEO of the association.
In Florida, firefighting equipment was being staged across the state so resources are closer to the fires, state Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson said.
"Florida has got one of the worst fire seasons in maybe the last 30 or 40 years or it’s turning out to be that way," Simpson said. "We’ve been in drought for 18 months now all across the state."
A wildfire disrupted Amtrak train service Monday in the northeast part of the state. Service was back to normal Wednesday, according to Amtrak spokeswoman Beth Toll.
A dangerous combination of low humidity and breezy winds will keep the fire danger elevated Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
Smoke drifted to Atlanta, Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. Some areas closer to the fires were seeing air quality warnings.
Smoky conditions were expected to linger throughout the Atlanta area on Wednesday, according to the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency. The worst fires were burning more than 200 miles southeast of the city.
The high fire risk was expected to continue each afternoon through Friday due to the dry conditions, the weather service said.
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