Firefighters used bulldozers to widen fire breaks that were protecting a small community from a wildfire that had blackened more than 223km2 of forest in southeast Georgia.
The fire, started on April 16 by a fallen power line that ignited tinder-dry trees near the sprawling Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, was about 45 percent contained after burning some 22,660 hectares, officials said.
"It's not directly a threat at this time" to nearby homes and communities, Byron Haire, a spokesman for the Georgia Forestry Commission, said on Monday.
PHOTO: AP/THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION
The huge fire was located about 15km southwest of Waycross and about 8km south of Manor, where firefighters were using bulldozers to broaden fire breaks from 1.8m wide to 6m.
Officials said 37km of fire break remained to be built.
Eighteen homes have been destroyed.
The fire spread into the Okefenokee Swamp last week and flames were burning Monday about 610m north of the 164,700 hectare refuge that places most of the swamp under federal protection.
Shawn Gillette, a ranger at the refuge, said firefighters have been plowing breaks around the swamp's edge to prevent any fire that enters the swamp from getting back out into forested uplands.
But he stressed that the swamp needs fire to burn vegetation that otherwise, over time, would become overgrown and convert the swamp into dry land.
Though some threatened and endangered animals could be killed, he said, the fire would not wipe out entire populations.
"Fire in the swamp is actually a good thing," Gillette said. "The overall wildlife populations will actually benefit from it."
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