Gusting wind could help firefighters Friday by pushing a 45-square-mile (117-sq.-kilometer) wildfire from a boggy swamp to an upland area where it would be easier to control, officials said. The 20 mph (32 kilometers) wind forecast Friday could intensify the blaze, which has destroyed 18 houses and forced at least 1,000 people from their homes. «The fire will be fierce today, but it will be in a place where we can get at it,» The Associated Press quoted Alan Dozier, the state forestry commission's chief firefighter, as saying. The flames jumped a fire break on Thursday into the Okefenokee Swamp and sent a thick haze of smoke through Waycross, a city of about 15,000, said Robin Cole, a spokeswoman for the Forestry Commission. About 5,000 people, many of them senior citizens, were urged to leave because of the smoke. Some spent Thursday night at a shelter set up at a middle school. Officials said they were unsure when most residents who evacuated their homes would be allowed to return.
