4,813 Fires So Far This Year In GA; Elsewhere In The Southeast, Drought And Hurricane Debris Helping Drive The Burning

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Two massive blazes in the southern part of the state were finally under control several weeks after they began, but not until they had devoured more than 50,000 acres and destroyed more than 100 homes. Then there were the thousands of other conflagrations the state’s firefighters have had to confront this season — 4,813 as of Thursday, not that Barrett was counting. “That’s almost 2,000 wildfires above our annual average,” said Barrett, forest protection chief for the Georgia Forestry Commission. “And still a month and a half to go in fire season.” Georgia is hardly alone. South Carolina already has eclipsed its recent annual average number of fires. Multiple states have put in place statewide burn bans during parts of this spring. Even as Barrett spoke, more than a dozen fires were raging to the south in Florida, including one that had scorched more than 11,000 acres along the Everglades and led local officials to issue air quality warnings.

The near-constant recent wildfires have underscored that while massive and destructive blazes in the West tend to capture attention, the Southeast is among the nation’s most active wildfire hot spots. It’s a reality likely to intensify as the changing climate leads to more extreme heat and longer-lasting droughts — conditions that have fueled the current fire season and hindered preventive measures meant to manage forests and lessen the likelihood of intense fires. The region spanning Texas to Virginia accounted for nearly half of U.S. wildfires last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

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Officials in multiple states say the millions of trees downed by Hurricane Helene in 2024 also remain a threat, because so much of that debris has dried out, and because the tangle of fallen timber can hamper access to areas firefighters need to reach. “As long as that debris is out there on the landscape, it’s going to be a component of our decision making,” Jones said. The swath of Helene debris that stretches for hundreds of miles north from parts of Florida was not a major factor in the recent fires that scorched south Georgia. But Barrett said it has played an undeniable role in many of the smaller fires that have cropped up in the state this season.

“There’s still a lot of fuel on the ground,” he said. “When you do have wildfires, it takes longer to put them out. It takes more resources, and generally they are bigger [than normal].” The unfolding of another busy fire season in the South is a reminder of the growing risks wildfires pose around the region. It regularly sees more wildfires than any other part of the country.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2026/05/15/why-wildfire-risk-southeast-remains-big-problem/

https://wapo.st/4nudwLN