NAHUNTA, Ga. – Anna and Dennis Dudek knew that if the order came, they would have to leave their Brantley County home quickly
The Highway 82 wildfire was spreading. Fast.
So they packed a couple of bags and waited with their four children and a menagerie of pets.
Then the order came.
“Get out now!”
They were able to save 10 dogs (six of their own and four fosters), some lizards and a hermit crab as they hopped in their car and left the area, not knowing what they would come home to.
They have since learned that the house they made their own over the last six years was all but leveled.
“Everybody has just been pouring love to us, trying to put clothes on our backs and provide us food, and I tell everybody that blessings don’t just come in the form of a dollar or materials,” Dennis Dudek said. “It’s the hug, the handshake, the pat on the back, the positive vibes. That right there is priceless, and we need that as well.”
Anna Dudek’s adult daughter launched a GoFundMe campaign to help her family, who are now staying with other relatives in Orlando temporarily.
The fire burning in rural Brantley County that destroyed the Dudek’s home and nearly 90 others has spread across more than 8 square miles since it ignited Monday, fanned by gusty winds into pine woods that are dry as tinder.
The Georgia Forestry Commission said the Brantley County blaze was 15% contained Friday. But local officials said conditions could worsen rapidly and urged residents to be prepared to flee.
“If you receive a mandatory evacuation notice, we need you to evacuate just as quickly as possible,” Joey Cason, county manager for Brantley County, said in a Facebook video Friday. “That containment can move from 15% to 0% in a matter of minutes with the wind.”
Local officials estimate roughly 200 Brantley County residents have been ordered to evacuate, leaving those displaced to worry about animals left behind and whether they will have homes to return to. No deaths or injuries have been reported.