Woman Rescued Her 2 Pets as a Georgia Wildfire Closed In. Her Home Is Now Gone.
Lesia Grogg woke up Tuesday morning at her home in Atkinson, Georgia, to the smell of trees on fire. She decided to go to work because the Georgia Forestry Commission was taming the blaze. What followed was anything but predictable.
Around 10 a.m., the sheriff’s office warned via Facebook that heavy smoke was making it hard to see on the roads. At the time, it seemed like it might just make the commute home inconvenient rather than dangerous.
The fire suddenly expanded to 700 acres once the wind shifted, then grew again to 1,000 acres. At 11 a.m. — less than an hour after the warning — Grogg was already heading back home to her trailer on Brushy Creek Road, just half a mile south of Highway 82.
She was able to make a quick rescue: “Only thing I got was my two animals,” Grogg said, per News4JAX.
There was no time for her to take anything else before being told to vacate the property by firefighters. Then, her home was destroyed.
“The firemen were putting the water hose on the top of my roof on my trailer, and they made me leave,” Grogg said.
A Fire That Moved Faster Than Anyone Expected
“It burned over 4,000 acres in a matter of hours as soon as the wind picked up,” Brantley County Manager Joey Cason said of the blaze.
Cason revealed the damage was severe, with 47 homes confirmed destroyed. In some cases, residents had almost no time to leave and minutes to spare — emergency crews had to evacuate families from their porches as the fire advanced into their backyards.
“It was a very rapidly moving fire yesterday afternoon,” Cason said.
Around 1 p.m., families in Waynesville and Atkinson received an urgent alert that their young children were being evacuated from Waynesville Primary and Atkinson Elementary schools. Parents quickly made their way to the Brantley County Middle School gym to pick them up, but many were also grappling with uncertainty about whether their homes would still be standing when they returned.
“When they left yesterday to go to work, they had no idea that this was going to happen,” Cason said.
Evacuations Expanded Within Hours
By a little after 3 p.m., officials escalated the situation with a Level 3 evacuation order for seven neighborhoods, signaling immediate danger and the need to leave right away. Then, by 5:30 p.m., the warning expanded again, forcing residents on four more streets to evacuate without delay.
Through the night, the wildfire surged past 5,000 acres, continuing to spread west of Highway 259 and pushing into areas south of Highway 82 and north of Highway 110 near the Satilla River.
Smoke Drifting More Than 400 Miles North
Heavy smoke from the South Georgia fires was drifting more than 400 miles, to as far north as Atlanta, prompting 911 calls from people concerned that the fires were close by, according to Atlanta Fire and Rescue.
“If you see an active fire, please do call, but keep in mind a lot of the smoke and what you’re smelling is coming from South Georgia,” Capt. Andrew Anderson of Atlanta Fire and Rescue told ABC Atlanta affiliate station WSB.
Schools Closed, Evacuations Still in Place
Brantley County Schools remained closed on Wednesday and Thursday, while mandatory evacuations stayed in place across multiple communities. Officials also urged anyone outside evacuation zones to remain ready to leave at a moment’s notice, since wind changes could quickly alter the fire’s direction.
Schools in Brantley County canceled classes for the second day in a row on Thursday due to the fire threat and smoke, officials said.
“This decision has been made to ensure the safety of our students, families, and employees, and to allow our Brantley County families time and space to navigate the impacts of the fire,” the local school system said in a statement on Wednesday.
The River May Not Hold the Fire Back
Cason said the experience has been a harsh wake-up call for many residents. He also emphasized that being farther away or across the river does not guarantee safety. Although conditions near Highway 32 north were relatively calmer at the moment, a shift in wind could drive the fire west and potentially push it across the Satilla River.
“The fire is right on the brink of the river,” he said. “We’re extremely concerned about it moving across the river.”
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