Ranger: Okefenokee fire 'not threatening'

FOLKSTON - A swamp fire that started as a controlled burn last month is not as threatening as it may have appeared, an Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge ranger said early Wednesday. <br> <br> ``It was relatively inactive last night,&#39;&#39; refuge ranger Jim Burkhart said. ``The fires by no means are out of control. It&#39;s just moving around boundary lines.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The blaze flared up over the weekend and spread over 5,000 acres of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. But, the fire is not threatening and no steps would be taken to contain it unless it moved to high ground, Burkhart said. <br> <br> ``This habitat and the wildlife that are here are all adapted to fire. They need fire,&#39;&#39; Burkhart said. The 400,000-acre swamp would fill up with peat and turn into a forest without occasional burnoffs, he said. <br> <br> Burkhart said a ``prescribed burn&#39;&#39; was started on an island in the interior of the swamp after about 6 inches of rain in early March. <br> <br> ``As luck would have it, the fire did not go out. It just kind of smoldered in fallen trees and stumps and things like that,&#39;&#39; he said. ``Over that time, it got extremely dry and we got some winds that got the fire going again.&#39;&#39;