Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia said on Friday that two large wildfires in southeast Georgia had destroyed more than 120 structures and scorched tens of thousands of acres of drought-stricken land as firefighters worked to contain them.
The fires were among dozens of wildfires that have been burning in southern Georgia and northern Florida this week, including one northwest of Jacksonville where a volunteer firefighter died after an unspecified medical emergency on Thursday, officials said.
Georgia officials said they believed the fires had burned more homes than any wildfire in the state’s history. About 1,000 additional homes remain at risk, Mr. Kemp said at a news conference. Smoke from the fires has spread as far as West Virginia.
The most destructive fire started Monday along Highway 82 in rural Brantley County, east of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge near the Georgia-Florida border, and has since burned more than 7,500 acres and 87 homes and other structures, Mr. Kemp said. The fire was about 15 percent contained on Friday, he said.
“We believe the fire was started by a balloon landing on a power line causing an arc that created the fire,” Mr. Kemp said. Other news outlets reported that the balloon was a metallic one from a child’s party.
The Pineland Road fire in Clinch and Echols Counties, on opposite side of the wildlife refuge, has burned more than 31,000 acres and destroyed 35 homes, Mr. Kemp said. That fire was about 10 percent contained on Friday morning.
“Unfortunately, we believe that fire activity is going to remain extremely high throughout the weekend,” Mr. Kemp said, “and really we need a change in the weather.”
Mr. Kemp declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, prompting evacuations in several communities. Officials announced the state’s first-ever burn ban this week.
Smoke from the fires spread across the Southeast this week and was pushing into the Appalachian Mountains and West Virginia on Friday.
The fire threat could rise over the weekend with a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast, as a weakening cold front moves through the region, where extreme drought has left the landscape dry and flammable.
The highest chance of thunderstorms was expected Saturday afternoon into the evening with a lingering possibility over the first half of Sunday, according to Alex Boothe, the lead forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Jacksonville.
The storms could bring lightning strikes that ignite new fires and winds that spread existing ones, even as the storms bring rain.
“Our biggest concern given the extreme drought conditions is that lightning over the area could lead to more” fires, Mr. Boothe said. “We’re not anticipating a washout or even beneficial rain. This could be one of those unfortunate setups for more fire.”
Mr. Boothe said the region was likely to pick up only about a quarter-inch of rain or less over the weekend. The rain will not bring enough moisture to extinguish fires that have most likely been burning under the surface of the ground.
When fires do this, it requires several inches of rain or pumping water into the ground to put them out, according to Andy Snyder, a fire meteorologist with the U.S. Wildland Fire Service in the Southeast.
The Pineland Road and Highway 82 fires and dozens of smaller ones in southern Georgia and north Florida have spread rapidly across a drought-ridden landscape.
The U.S. Drought Monitor map tracks drought by county, and the highest levels on the map, extreme to exceptional drought, straddle the Georgia-Florida border.
The drought in Florida is the worst since the map was introduced in 2000, according to Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center. The situation in Georgia is approaching the severity of droughts in 2007 and 2000, Mr. Fuchs said.
Southern Georgia and northern Florida recorded below-normal precipitation over the last year, with deficits of 16 to 20 inches.
“All the fire activity we’re seeing in the Southeast is fuel-driven because of the drought,” Mr. Snyder said. “Because the drought is exceptional, there’s no water in the swamps and waterways, and that can usually be used as a way to mitigate the spread.”
Mark Walker is a Times reporter who covers breaking news and culture.
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