By Dan Chapman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Jimmy Brown hoped he’d seen the last of the Great Fire of ’07, the largest wildfire ever to burn Georgia.
“It was putting up some pretty good smoke Sunday. We still have some hot spots in the Okefenokee,” Brown, fire chief for Ware County, said Tuesday. “But it’s not likely to come out of the swamp.”
For two months, starting in mid-April, the fire in Southeast Georgia raged, waned, raged anew and spilled into Florida before heavy rains and firefighters from 44 states, Puerto Rico and Canada put it out.
Even Atlantans, 215 miles to the north, awoke a couple of mornings to hazy, smoky skies.
Local and state officials say the destruction tops $100 million so far in Georgia alone. Remarkably, nobody died. And less than two dozen structures — houses, trailers and sheds — burned.
“When the challenge came, we met it,” Brown said. “But we hope we never see that kind of fire again.”
$44.1 million cost to fight the fire
$11 million (estimate) covered by state of Georgia
$33.1 million (estimate) expected to be covered by Federal Emergency Management Agency
Firefighters came from 44 states, Puerto Rico and Canada
Main counties affected: Ware, Charlton, Clinch
3,326 people fought the fire
$60 million estimated value of timber lost
440,732 acres burned in Georgia
560,000 total acres burned, including Florida
Source: Georgia Forestry Commission