WHITE COUNTY, Ga. — A squad of state and federal forest firefighters prepared to make the climb at the base of Buzzard Mountain along Robert Jarrard Road in White County Monday. About halfway up, you could see the smoke.
“When the winds are pushing it, sometimes the fire can move quickly. We had flame lengths in the 4-foot to 6-foot range. The fire can move quickly, especially when it’s moving uphill,” U.S. Forest Service Commander Dan Cottrell told Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen.
NewsDrone2 was overhead and got video of the rising smoke.
Officials say the fire started late Sunday afternoon and, within 24 hours, had burned through nearly 30 bone-dry acres.
There are homes in the area, but officials say the fire was 1-1/2 miles from the closest one. With weeks of little to no rain across the north Georgia mountains, the risk of wildfires is extremely high.
Officials say the flick of a cigarette could result in disaster.
In this case, they say the first crews that arrived found that somebody had been burning on private property. That spread into the mountain, which is federal land.
“They first discovered it was not a structure fire but a fire in the wood line that spread. Somebody had apparently been doing some burning there,” White County Public Safety Director David Murphy said.
Murphy told Channel 2 an investigation is underway.
As of 5 p.m. Monday, U.S. Forest Service officials said the Buzzard Mountain fire was 60% contained.
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