BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. – Wildfires burning in Brantley County scorched about 5,000 acres and remained only 15% contained, as evacuation orders continued and residents braced for what came next.
Officials urged all residents to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. The situation grew more dire after winds shifted, causing the fire to expand again after it had appeared to be slowing down.
MORE:Full coverage of the Brantley County wildfire
A sheriff’s deputy went door to door Thursday, ordering residents to leave. Eric Rozier was one of them.
“We started getting everything that we could grab, you know, and we got the dogs. We got our bird, got all my guns and family pictures,” Rozier said.
Rozier said the morning started out manageable, but conditions deteriorated fast. He and his family eventually pulled over on the side of Highway 32 near 110 — among a line of evacuees doing the same.
“We see fires here and there, but most of the time they get put out pretty fast. And you deal with the occasional hurricane that comes through, but I’d take that any day over this,” Rozier said.
Not everyone had been ordered out. Alissa Deen and Hailey Popwell are neighbors who live close to the evacuation zones, watching the situation unfold in real time.
“Honestly it’s a loss for words because you really don’t know what to think, you don’t know what it does, I mean you just really there’s no words to describe it. I’m just scared, that’s all I can really say on it,” Deen said.
Popwell said she felt for the families who had already lost property.
“I couldn’t imagine the people that are losing their homes and their properties right now. We’re fortunate to not have made it to that point, but we’re praying that we don’t make it to that point,” Popwell said.
With no clear timeline for containment, many in the community said they were holding onto hope — and asking for rain.
Deen said she shared the sentiment spreading through the area: “Just pray. I mean, God is what’s going to be able to stop this.”
Rozier echoed that hope. “We just got to hope and pray it stays mostly in wooded areas and it don’t get into the residential parts,” he said.
Officials continued to urge residents to remain prepared to evacuate.