Several dozen people in Georgia’s southernmost county have been evacuated after a wildfire in the Okefenokee Swamp has begun to burn just a few miles from the St. George community.
Saturday’s evacuation initially included a sparsely populated rural area of Charleton County from Jim Crawford Loop road south to St. George on the west side of Highway 121. County Administrator Shawn Boatright couldn’t immediately say how many residents might be affected in the latter area.
The wildfire started by lightning April 6 and has since burned more than 150 square miles (389 sq. kilometers) on public lands. It has burned almost entirely within the Okefenokee refuge boundaries — and some public forestland in north Florida — for the past month, but escaped fire breaks around the refuge…