After burning for 10 days, the Arabia Bay fire in south Georgia continues to put up a great deal of smoke as it slowly eats its way through a swamp northwest of Homerville. Smoke from the fire has required some highways to be closed temporarily, as well as the Clinch County school system which had to close yesterday. The Clinch Memorial Hospital had to transfer several patients with respiratory issues to South Georgia Regional Medical Center in Valdosta.
On Thursday firefighters conducted a 300-acre burnout to secure the area around the Arabia Bay Church on the southeast corner of the fire. On Friday, weather permitting, they expect to continue the burnout on the east side to secure that flank. So far, 1,170 acres have burned and the fire is being managed by Steve Abbot’s Type 3 Incident Management Team along with a total of 38 personnel. They are calling it 50% contained.
Firefighters have constructed a tractor plow line around the entire 5,000-acre swamp but are unable to fight the fire directly out in the wetlands. Their strategy is to wait for the fire to burn up to their prepared lines, and conduct burnouts when they can. It is likely that the entire swamp will burn eventually.
The Georgia Forestry Commission is posting occasional updates on Facebook.
