WAYCROSS — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp needed only one word to describe the resolve of those involved in fighting the U.S. 82 fire in Brantley County.
“I can tell you, No. 1 - they’re focused,” Kemp said Friday, April 24 during a press briefing at the Waycross-Ware County Airport.
Gov. Kemp and other state officials had just returned from a tour of the blaze in Brantley County, as well as the Pineland Road fire in the southern portions of Clinch County and Echols County near the Florida line. He said the two were the largest in the country, encompassing nearly 56,000 acres between them as of Monday afternoon, April 27.
The Clinch-Echols blaze was approaching 33,000 acres while the U.S. 82 fire was just short of 23,000 acres covered.
Kemp and others viewed the fires from the air and also made stops on the ground. It was one of those stops along Georgia 110 where a controlled burn was taking place and he saw the focus of those engaged with the fire.
The governor said he and First Lady Mardy Kemp exited their vehicle to interact with firefighters.
“We stopped on the side of road where the fire was burning literally right up to right of way,” Gov. Kemp said. “They were hosing down the area from the back burning. I shook one firefighter’s hand and he didn’t even look up. He didn’t know who I was.
“He came back a minute later and said, ‘sorry about that sir.’ That’s just how focused we are on getting this fire put out.”
The Brantley County fire has destroyed approximately 90 homes since it began Monday afternoon. Gov. Kemp said last week at the press briefing when the number was well short of that figure, the fire already was the worst in state history.
The governor said the fire has been so intense it burned a Georgia Forestry heavy bulldozer designed to withstand intense heat.
“Director (Johnny) Sabo said the fire was so dangerous at one point they were having to pull people off the line because they were worried about their life safety,” said Gov. Kemp of a conversation with the Director of the Georgia Forestry Commission. “He said he didn’t ever remember having to do that before.”
Officials said they had an inkling late last year it could be a rugged spring fire season in the area. No tropical system or systems passed through the region as they had the previous two years and that was followed by a dry winter.
That combination followed by an unusually dry first few months of this year has brought this result, said Sabo, who added the state began cutting lines in timber-laden areas in the southern part of the state in hopes of minimizing any fires which may arise.
Gov. Kemp and others said they were gratified at the outpouring of help from around the state for those fighting the fires as well as others doing what they can to provide for those displaced by the fire.
“I saw a fire truck from Fannin County,” he said. “Help has come from all over the state. We can’t thank you enough. That’s just how Georgia is, though.”
Ironically, the Brantley High School baseball team traveled to Fannin County last week for the first round of the GHSA Division I-A state tournament.
The First Lady appeared at the press briefing with her husband wearing a shirt with “PRAY” across the front. She said it was given to her during the governor’s administration by a Georgia Emergency Management Association (GEMA) employee in the aftermath of one of the hurricanes to hit the state.
“If I can’t say anything (at a press conference),” she said referencing the shirt when questioned by a reporter, “I can remind people we need the prayers for the families and the firefighters to continue.”
