Fire erupts near Pearson

Terry Richards

April 29, 2007 11:50 pm

— PEARSON — Adding to South Georgia’s fire woes Sunday was a blaze in Atkinson County that burned at least 3,500 acres by late evening, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission.
Smoke from the fire, centered in an area called Roundabout Swamp, could be seen from northern Lowndes County.
The Roundabout fire was about 30 percent contained by 8:45 p.m., said Susan Reisch, public information officer for the Georgia Forestry Commission.
The fire was about three miles southwest of Pearson, she said.
Local residents watching the blaze from a distance said there were a few houses and mobile homes in the area, but Reisch said there were no reports of damaged structures.
“It’s a 4,000-acre area of peat moss,” she said. “(Peat moss) can smolder for a long time and it’s really hard to put it out.”
Forestry commission crews and Pearson authorities fought the blaze through the night after it was reported, Reisch said. “They’re keeping it contained in the swamp.”
There had been no reported injuries with the Roundabout fire as of Sunday evening, she said.
Elsewhere, firefighters have managed to contain about 70 percent of the largest wildfire in Georgia history, which has charred 100 square miles of forest and swampland in the Waycross area in nearly two weeks, officials said Sunday.
A few families remain evacuated across U.S. 1 from the Waycross-area blaze, where smaller spot fires ignited this weekend, Reisch said. While firefighters continue to patrol the affected 16-mile stretch of highway that remains closed, the wildfire hasn’t spread across it to miles of tinder-dry forest.
Two more wildfires that broke out early Sunday morning in counties near the main fire — one in Charlton County near the line with Ware County and one on the line of Brantley and Glynn counties — were not connected with the wildfire near Waycross, Reisch said.
The forestry commission expects the fires near Pearson and Waycross to burn through the week, Reisch said.
“The fires will continue to burn until we get some rain,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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