According to the Chattanooga Times-Free Press more than 30 forestry workers from Northwest Georgia have been on two-week shifts in Okefenokee Swamp since May 6.

In all, about 500 firefighters are working in the swamp, primarily on two fires. The biggest already has scorched more than 250 square miles. It is believed to have been started by an April 30 lightning strike and is fueled by drought-dried foliage and timber. Officials say the fire, called the Honey Prairie Fire, is about 80 percent contained.

The other blaze, named the Racepond Fire, has burned about 12 square miles on the swamp’s northern end but now is 70 percent contained.

Lightning from thunderstorms this week has caused nearly 50 small fires that diverted fire crews’ attention.

Fire officials told The Associated Press it will take several days of soaking rains to douse the blazes.

Josh Burnette, a management forester who covers Catoosa, Walker, Dade, Chattooga and Whitfield counties, said he and other forestry workers cleaned up after tornadoes for two weeks straight before being relieved of that duty. They had one day off before they got a call to head to the Okefenokee. Burnette said he spent most of the time at the emergency headquarters rather than on the front lines. One thing he learned is how conventional logistics don’t always work in a swamp.

Crews have to be very careful where they take the trucks and dozers. In some spots, Burnette said, vegetation on top of ponds is afire and crews can bulldoze only around the water and bogs to contain the flames.

Some of the swamp’s most remote areas are considered wilderness, a federal classification that means crews will not fight the flames and “nature will be allowed to take its course,” Burnette said.

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