Ranger warns of fire danger in Burke
By Elizabeth Billips
No burn' issued

Chief Ranger George Glenn says drought conditions have prompted the Georgia Forestry C o m m i s s i o n (GFC) to issue a "no-burn" order for Burke and other Georgia counties. Glenn, along with GFC rangers Myron Williams and Eddie Jackson and DNR ranger Mike Wilcox, spent two weeks fighting fires in southeast Georgia.

George Glenn snaps a twig from a dying pine and worries about forest fires.

The chief ranger is still coughing from the two weeks he spent fighting the Sweat Farm Road fire in Waycross.

He scoops up a handful of dirt behind the local Georgia Forestry Commission office and shakes his head as it sifts through his fingers.

"These late afternoon spot showers fool people into thinking they can burn," he says, eying the brown grass and pine straw underfoot. "But the drought index is so low that conditions are only good for several hours."

Not so long ago, Glenn was scanning a skyline choked with black smoke. Fourteen houses and tens of thousands of acres had already been destroyed. As he and other rangers tried to plow firebreaks around the periphery, hot embers rode past them on gusts of wind.

"The gusts were causing spot fires three-quarters of a mile away," he said, remembering 60-foot pines that burned to their tops.

According to the commission, 23 fires have consumed nearly 570,000 acres in Georgia, with more acres burning every hour.

Glenn says one loose spark could be equally catastrophic in Burke.

"We can't let what's happening in Ware County happen here," he says, glancing back at the yellow tractors local rangers used to wrangle through charred woods and dry creek beds for 14 days. "With all our pine stands and hardwood, the potential is there at any time."

According to Glenn, burning is banned in Burke and nearly every other Georgia county until further notice.

"No campfires, no yard debris, no construction," he says, adding that nothing less than substantial, steady rainfall will change the status. "Absolutely no burning ...period."