Fires set to contain Okefenokee Swamp blaze

FOLKSTON - Firefighters are trying to block the progress of a fire in the Okefenokee Swamp by burning vegetation it could use for fuel.

Brian Goddin, a spokesman for the agencies involved in fighting the fire, says an incident response team used helicopters and dispatched firefighters on Wednesday to set fires east of Georgia 177 near Stephen C. Foster State Park.

Goddin says the operation is intended to burn out vegetation west of the fire and deprive it of fuel if winds begin blowing from the east.

He says including the latest burn, the fire may have consumed 148,000 acres.
Elsewhere, the south branch of the response team is mopping up hot spots along control lines, and the east branch is securing lines along the edge of the swamp.