Firefighters make progress on Brantley County wildfire after rain

BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Firefighters are making progress on one of the two most dangerous wildfires in the nation after it doubled in size over the weekend.

The fire off Highway 82 in Brantley County has destroyed vehicles and property. Fire containment is under 10%.

Firefighters making progress due to weather

The Brantley County fire grew in size, but thanks to the weather, firefighters are making progress. That’s according to Karen Miranda-Gleason, one of the region’s incident management team’s information officers. 

She showed WTOC’s crew through parts of Brantley County. Weather has been the key difference between progress and setbacks. Sunday, they experienced a little under an inch of rain.

“West of the fire, just outside of the fire closer to Waycross, that’s where we got dry lightning so we actually have fire crews patrolling and looking for what we call ‘sleepers’ that might be ready to flare up when it dries out,” said Karen Miranda-Gleason, Southern Area Incident Management Team Information Officer.

The fire containment is under 10%, but that number will hopefully grow early this week before the dry conditions set back in. 

Another important thing this weather allows is for firefighters to take a breath. 

This fire started a week ago, and they have over 400 first responders on site.