FARGO, Ga. – Ten of thousands of dollars are lost, after groves of pine timber are burned to the ground in South Georgia.
The Georgia Forestry Commission says five fires were set a week ago along rural dirt roads in Homerville, Statenville, and Fargo.
Superior Pines in Fargo says around 40,000 trees are dead, after being scorched by the fire.
Their property was the site of three of the five fires.
They say the responded to one location, only to find two more.
Crews were fighting all three fires simultaneously until the next morning.
The timber company says they can’t understand who would do this. Especially, with the West Mims Fire burning just miles up the road.
“It’s hard to register that somebody would actually come out here as dry as things are and knowing there’s a swamp fire that’s 100,000 acres just up the road,” says Robbie Lee, with Superior Pines. “To do this while we’re trying to keep people safe on those fire line, it’s just hard to believe.
He says it damaged a total of 92 acres off of Mud Camp Break.
The company will take an 85% loss on those trees.
“It’s obvious that the person doing this doesn’t care about the local economy, people’s jobs, or anything other than lighting the fire and watching people put their lives at risk to stop it,” says Lee.
The GFC says Clinch County has already seen 20 arson fires in the past nine months.
While they continue their investigation, they’re asking the community for help on any information.
They hope it will point to new leads, before more property suffers.
