About 400 residents of Fargo, in Southeast Georgia, are watching as a dangerous wildfire is being kept at bay just outside of town.
The wildfire started deep in the unpopulated Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge last weekend, but grew and moved with blazing speed to force hundreds outside the refuge to flee their homes. The fire had been moving at speeds of up to 9-miles in a single night and now is about 6-miles upwind of Fargo.
"Well, there's a lot of difference in it moving in the swamp than on the hill," says Robbie Lee, the town's Mayor and a forester. "We've done a lot of fire break work on the hill. I've got a lot of confidence in our fire-fighting abilities."
Lee says, if the fire jumps past key breaks, the town will evacuate. It's now the second Georgia wildfire in a month to burn over 1-hundred-thousand acres as high winds and dry conditions leave the area a tinder box.
The wildfire started deep in the unpopulated Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge last weekend, but grew and moved with blazing speed to force hundreds outside the refuge to flee their homes. The fire had been moving at speeds of up to 9-miles in a single night and now is about 6-miles upwind of Fargo.
"Well, there's a lot of difference in it moving in the swamp than on the hill," says Robbie Lee, the town's Mayor and a forester. "We've done a lot of fire break work on the hill. I've got a lot of confidence in our fire-fighting abilities."
Lee says, if the fire jumps past key breaks, the town will evacuate. It's now the second Georgia wildfire in a month to burn over 1-hundred-thousand acres as high winds and dry conditions leave the area a tinder box.
