By Jade Bulecza - bio | email
CLINCH COUNTY, GA (WALB) –It's cost the Georgia Forestry Commission hundreds of thousands of dollars to manage the fire.
The Arabia Fire has been burning for three weeks. Rangers are hoping for a good amount of rain to put it out as it continues to char the swamp.
Rangers predict the wind will dry up the little bit of moisture in the Arabia Bay swamp. The fire is 100 percent contained but they're still keeping a close eye on it as it smolders and smokes.
"We come out here several times a day ride the breaks making sure it stays in," said the Clinch County Chief Ranger Blair Joiner. "We have air patrol that's flying it twice a day looking at it from the air."
Arabia Bay got three quarters of an inch of rain Tuesday night, not enough to wipe out the fire. They're aren't any flames like they're have been in days past but once the moisture dries up, rangers say it's a possibility that the dead vegetation like these dried leaves could hit the ground an cause a reburn.
"If we could get 6 to eight inches of rain within maybe two days that would be great," said Joiner.
That would be possibly enough to put it out.
The Georgia Forestry Commission estimates that it's cost them more than $125,000 and that's strictly just for managing the incident. That doesn't include costs incurred by a long list of those who assisted including deputies, Rayonier timber company, GEMA, and DOT workers.
And not to mention the lives put on the line, to battle a fire thought to be set by arsonist.
There is a $10,000 reward for the arsonist who started the fire.
More than 2,700 acres have burned.
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Source: Georgia Forestry Commission
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