By Rich McKay
ATLANTA, April 23 (Reuters) – More than 50 homes and structures were destroyed this week and at least 1,000 others were threatened on Thursday by wildfires in southeast Georgia that sent smoke and haze floating as far north as Atlanta, some 260 miles (418 km) away.
Hundreds of firefighters from 20 departments in Georgia were battling the blazes on Thursday in rural pine forests and scrubland interspersed with small neighborhoods, fruit farms and livestock near the Georgia-Florida state line.
One firefighter was reported injured, but no civilians were hurt as of Thursday, fire officials said.
Hundreds of people were under mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders in the region and area schools were closed at least through Friday. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency on Wednesday.
By Thursday the Pineland Road Fire, which started in mid-April, had scorched about 29,000 acres in Clinch County, Georgia, largely pine tree stands planted for timber. The fire was about 10 percent contained, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission.
Homes were destroyed and threatened in the 5,000-acre Highway 82 Fire in nearby Brantley County, Georgia, officials said. The fire started Monday and was 15 percent contained.
Brantley County manager Joey Cason said on Thursday that firefighters worried about afternoon winds spreading the fire across drought-dry forests.
The fire had grown dramatically from about 700 acres Tuesday morning to roughly 5,000 acres by Wednesday night.
“I will be very honest with you. It’s a miracle that we have not had any lives lost,” Cason told reporters.
A third fire near Jacksonville, Florida, the 4,000-acre Railroad Fire, was also sending heavy smoke northward, joining a haze blanketing much of the central and eastern parts of Georgia.
Florida officials promised to send manpower from the Florida National Guard, along with firefighting equipment to help.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; editing by Donna Bryson)
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