Georgia’s Arabia Bay fire shrinks by 88%

The Arabia Bay fire, burning in a swamp in southern Georgia, was reported to be 1,500 acres on Wednesday’s national Situation Report, but that number has changed. Now the Georgia Forestry Commission says only 175 acres have burned. In our November 10 story about the fire we reported that the GFC expected the fire to burn all 5,000 acres of the Arabia Bay swamp by November 16. It’s going to have to get busy to get that done.

Maps of the fire area are in our earlier article.

UPDATE @ 3:00 p.m. ET, Nov. 13

On November 12 firefighters completed control lines around the perimeter. The updated size is 325 acres. For the next day or two, at least, the strategy will be to strengthen the control lines in areas where there are heavy fuels near the lines. The fire behavior on Friday was “moderate, with flame lengths of 10 feet… still within control lines”.

The satellite photo from this afternoon shows smoke from the fire blowing toward the southwest.

UPDATE @ 1:28 p.m. ET, November 15

Updated information is posted here.

Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire. View all posts by Bill Gabbert