Honey Prairie Fire: 303,688 acres, 70% contained
The Honey Prairie Fire continues to show signs of life. East winds Wednesday, 8/18/11 were responsible for bringing visible open flame activity to a small area in the northwest corner of the refuge. There were no fire escapes or other problems from this activity but it does emphasize that this fire is not out yet. “Many residents and visitors to the area are likely wondering why the fire will not go out? The reason it will not go out is due to two problems: available fuels and location,” commented Curt McCasland, Refuge Manager. “The fire is and has burned on the surface of the swamp as well as in the peat beds of the subsurface. Peat beds are accumulations of partially decayed vegetation which will still burn when it is sufficiently dried. The swamp water levels are currently low enough that peat beds have been exposed to severe drying. The surface burns that have consumed around 300,000 acres of the swamp have now burned down into the peat and will continue to burn until water levels rise enough to extinguish this source of fire. Heat from the surface burn is also lingering in dead and dying trees as well as piles of brush scattered across the swamps surface. Both of these sources of heat are activated during dry days especially those with significant winds, McCasland commented.
“The other major component we have to deal with is the location of the fire when it does come to life. The vast majority of the interior acreage of the swamp is inaccessible to firefighters and heavy equipment. Yes, helicopters can fly over these areas with water drops. This process is very expensive and has proven to be very ineffective. We simply cannot refill the swamp and put out the fire with helicopter bucket drops” he said.
“ The Honey Prairie Fire will need serious help from “Mother Nature” in the form of a wide spread rain storm capable of depositing 6-8 inches of rain or more all across the swamp to finally put this fire out” said McCasland. “Our only option at this point is to continue to monitor the fire, fight it back into the swamp when it attempts to exit as we wait for “Mother Nature” to bring us a rain ending event” commented the Refuge Manager.
“Refuge staff, cooperators, citizens, and visitors to the area owe all of these firefighters a great deal of thanks for enduring the heat, humidity, and other dangers of this long fought campaign. Many of them have been here for multiple tours of duty. All of them have families, jobs, churches, and a host of other things they could be doing. Their professional dedication and intensity has been a real bonus in attempting to manage this event” commented McCasland.
The Georgia Forestry Commission’s Type 3 Incident Management team led by Incident Commander Steve Gray continues to direct resources to monitor the progress of the fire and provide for initial attack of any fire escapes or new fire starts. Firefighters continue to deal with high temperatures, high relative humidity, hazardous driving conditions, and continued threats by electrical storms in and around the area.
Honey Prairie Fire Rekindles
Four months into fighting the Honey Prairie Fire, it came back to haunt firefighters again. A short radio transmission heard on Saturday evening, 8/20/11 about 5:00 PM indicated that firefighters in the northwest portion of the Refuge, just northeast of Fargo, Ga. reported a fire had been located on the Refuge. They indicated that it was a re-burn fire. That is, the fire had already burned through this area weeks ago. The fuels that were left behind by this initial burn (dead leaves, pine straw, twigs and limbs) had re-ignited in an area close to a fireline that narrowly separated a stand of commercial pine trees from the boundary line of the Refuge. Fortunately, a fire crew, responsible for initial attack, was staged close by and immediately began to move into position to fight the fire back into the swamp. In addition to the initial attack fire crew, the radio call also requested the aid of a medium helicopter capable of dropping numerous buckets of water in an attempt to halt the fires escalating heat and size. The pilot of the helicopter successfully dropped 40+ buckets of water before running low on fuel. A second medium helicopter replaced the first ship and continued with another 40+ buckets of water. With daylight subsiding rapidly about 8:00 PM the helicopters ceased their operations and returned to their base of operations in Waycross. The initial attack ground crew them monitored the area for any signs of continued life before returning to their base camp for the night.
A reconnaissance flight the next morning, (8/21/11) observed that many burned and unburned areas in the northwestern corner of the refuge were showing renewed signs of life. Numerous plumes of smoke and open flames dotted the area. Fire fighting resources have been pre-positioned along the northwestern edge of the refuge to battle the fire back into the refuge wherever and whenever it tries to escape. Southwest winds on 8/21/11 will push smoke into the Waycross/Hoboken area and beyond on Sunday. A predicted wind shift to the West on Monday 8/22/11 will move smoke toward Kingfisher Landing and Folkston with predicted secondary smoke impacts to Camden County and Coastal Georgia.
The Honey Prairie Fire is definitely not out yet!
08-22-11
19:00 hrs