Primed to burn

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 7th of May. 

So glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up: beating the heat.

Hundreds of burned homes and tens of thousands of acres of pine forest are likely unsalvageable after two large wildfires swept through South Georgia.

REICHARD: Both were unintentionally set, but the entire state is experiencing drought conditions, with some areas in a state of “exceptional drought,” the most severe classification.

The fires are mostly contained this morning, but still burning in some places.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: On April 18th, Superior Pine Products Company Vice President Corey Davis was camping with his family when he got a call about a wildfire near his company’s timber forest.

DAVIS: And I told my wife, I said, ‘I've got to go.’ She said, ‘It's two acres. Why do you have to go?’ And I said, ‘I know what's coming,’ you know, because we knew the conditions.

Davis got to the fire 90 minutes later and started clearing brush from what became the Pineland Road fire.

DAVIS: Three nights. I didn't go home. So I got probably two to four hours of sleep.

Within a week, high winds spread the fire to about 32,000 acres—roughly the size of San Francisco. Meanwhile, farther East, the Highway 82 fire burned 22 thousand acres.

Firefighters converged from across the country, but resources were split.

Will Ficklen’s timber company owns land near Superior Pine. At least 15 thousand acres of his land burned.

FICKLEN: That was a double whammy that Georgia Forestry Commission, you know, had to fight two fires at the same time that were two of the largest in the state's history on, you know, private timberland.

Davis says timber doesn’t have safety net programs or crop insurance. Owners can deduct $10,000 on their taxes, but after that they’re on their own to reforest. Davis says that can cost about $300 an acre.

DAVIS: Multiply that times 10,000 is $300,000 that just, they just had to spend with no, no recourse.

With both fires mostly contained now, crews are working on cleanup.

MICKOLAY: So right here, this is, you know, the edge of the fire. See where the it's it's burned through this area.

Drew Mickolay is a public information officer with the Georgia Forestry Commission. He says the few spots still smoking are normal.

MICKOLAY: We've driven almost a mile from the edge of the containment line. So those smokes like that, if they're not a threat to our containment lines, they'll continue to burn for some time.

That could be days or months, especially in swamps, where peat can burn like coal until there’s a heavy rain.

It will likely takes years for the area to look like normal. But Mickolay says pines with just a few green needles would normally bounce back.

MICKOLAY: But they've, these trees have already been so stressed from from the ongoing drought that... they might not survive still. 

Hurricane Helene downed or damaged trees in the same area in 2024. The Georgia Forestry Commission says that likely added extra fuel, but the drought has been the exacerbating factor.

The two fires also destroyed at least 120 homes. Georgia’s governor says that’s the highest number in state history.

So volunteers like Samaritan's Purse are helping homeowners sift through the remnants and remove debris.

Aaron Richards is a Program Manager on-site.

RICHARDS: We've heard a lot of people saying, ‘normally we get a hurricane,’ or ‘normally we're prepared for a hurricane.’ We've not heard a lot of people saying, ‘we were prepared for a large fire.’

But Corey Davis with Superior Pine was prepared. They have people on constant fire duty and own their own fire equipment.

President Scott Griffin says that preparedness is about more than the company’s bottom line. He thinks 90 percent of his community relies on the forest in some way.

GRIFFIN: Because you have honeybee keepers, you know, tree planters, road contractors, everybody that lives in this part of the world is connected to the forest in some way or another, whether though employment or just enjoying the outdoors.

It will take time to know the full extent of the damage, but there are already signs of recovery. In a few areas, palmettos are sprouting new growth, and some grasses are pushing their way up.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy in Clinch and Brantley County, Georgia.

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