{"id":242616,"date":"2026-04-23T01:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T01:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/242616\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T01:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T01:05:22","slug":"wildfires-burning-in-georgia-and-florida-homes-destroyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/242616\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires burning in Georgia and Florida, homes destroyed"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAHUNTA, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Huge plumes of smoke blanketed swaths of the Southeast on Wednesday as crews battled rapidly growing wildfires<\/a> that destroyed more than 50 homes in Georgia and forced hundreds to flee the drought- and wind-fueled flames.<\/p>\n

Some of the biggest blazes were near Georgia\u2019s coast, while others were popping up in northern Florida, a state facing one of its worst fire seasons in decades.<\/p>\n

It was not yet clear how the wildfires started, but the bottom half of Georgia is perilously dry and the conditions prompted the state\u2019s forestry commission to issue a burn ban for the first time in its history. Southeastern Georgia has seen just 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain since the beginning of September \u2014 almost 15 inches (38 centimeters) below normal, the National Weather Service said.<\/p>\n

The fires spread so quickly in that area that residents received no warnings or alerts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish that I had knew something more,\u201d said Brianna Elliott, who left home Tuesday only to find her route back blocked by the fires 90 minutes later. \u201cI would have turned around in that moment and gone home and got my animals before anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

She now fears that her home and her dogs are gone.<\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s two biggest wildfires together have burned more than 33 square miles (85 square kilometers), and at least four other smaller fires have been reported in the state. <\/p>\n

Dry timber feeds Georgia fires<\/p>\n

The fast-moving Brantley County fire threatened roughly 1,000 homes Wednesday after destroying dozens a day earlier. <\/p>\n

That fire grew by roughly six times in just a half day Tuesday, said Joey Cason, the county manager. There were fires erupting \u201cin the backyard and people taking off in the front yard,\u201d he said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

So far no major injuries have been reported, Cason said.<\/p>\n

The rural county is roughly midway between Georgia\u2019s coastal beaches and the Okefenokee Swamp, dotted with livestock and fruit farms as well as thick stands of planted pines grown for timber.<\/p>\n

Crews worked to create fire breaks and stop the flames from reaching populated areas. The biggest concern was gusting winds that could easily spread embers. <\/p>\n

Authorities said rain is desperately needed. The area with the worst fires was in exceptional or extreme drought<\/a>, the most dire levels, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you could start praying for that right now, we\u2019d be grateful,\u201d Cason said.<\/p>\n

Pine and hardwood forests in the region are helping charge the fires, said Seth Hawkins, a spokesperson for the Georgia Forestry Commission, and swampy lowlands with thick layers of leaves and woody debris are \u201csuper flammable\u201d when they dry out. <\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s 30-day burn ban is for the southern part of the state.<\/p>\n

FEMA announced the approval of grants for Georgia and Florida to battle the blazes. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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More residents told to evacuate<\/p>\n

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for more than half of the state\u2019s counties. <\/p>\n

More people were told to evacuate from Brantley County on Wednesday afternoon, on top of the 800 evacuations previously. Another large fire that started in nearby Clinch County also prompted evacuations. <\/p>\n

Mike Reardon and his wife packed family photos and their dog, Molly Rose, along with new e-bikes before leaving their Brantley County home.<\/p>\n

The fire was about a mile away, and a shift in the wind would put flames \u201cin our backyard in a matter of minutes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The couple just built the home two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than our house. It\u2019s land that my dad bought years ago,\u201d Liz Reardon said, fighting back tears. \u201cIt\u2019s the most beautiful place in the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida sees its worst wildfire season in decades <\/p>\n

In Florida, firefighters battled more than 130 wildfires that burned 39 square miles (101 square kilometers), mostly in the state\u2019s northern half. <\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida has got one of the worst fire seasons in maybe the last 30 or 40 years, or it\u2019s turning out to be that way,\u201d state Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in drought for 18 months now all across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smoke blows into Atlanta and Jacksonville<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service said a dangerous combination of low humidity and breezy winds would keep the fire danger elevated Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Smoke drifted to Atlanta, Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. The air quality in parts of south Georgia declined to the unhealthy category, meaning all people there might feel health effects. <\/p>\n

Smoky conditions were expected to linger throughout the Atlanta area, according to the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency. The worst fires were more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) southeast of the city.<\/p>\n

Smoke from Georgia fires also spread into South Carolina, according to its forestry commission.<\/p>\n

The high fire risk was expected to continue each afternoon through Friday due to the very dry conditions, the weather service said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy and Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NAHUNTA, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Huge plumes of smoke blanketed swaths of the Southeast on Wednesday as crews battled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4075,107103,3753,1838,6576,624,1882,28,30,29,9938,477,1853,107104,107101,107102,107106,25585,107105,1110,10782],"class_list":{"0":"post-242616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-brianna-elliott","10":"tag-climate","11":"tag-climate-and-environment","12":"tag-evacuations","13":"tag-fires","14":"tag-fl-state-wire","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-florida-headlines","17":"tag-florida-news","18":"tag-ga-state-wire","19":"tag-general-news","20":"tag-georgia","21":"tag-joey-cason","22":"tag-liz-reardon","23":"tag-mike-reardon","24":"tag-molly-rose","25":"tag-natural-disasters","26":"tag-seth-hawkins","27":"tag-u-s-news","28":"tag-wildfires"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}