April 30, 2007—A satellite photo depicts vast blankets of smoke generated by wildfires in Florida and Georgia.
Six major fires (indicated by red dots) raged in the region this week, four of which have burned more than 100,000 acres (40,400 hectares) of Georgia forest and swampland.
State officials attributed the conflagrations to weeks of extreme drought conditions, which have turned even the marshy lands around Okefenokee Swamp into dry tinder.
"Georgia's fire risk is at a 50-year high," said Alan Dozier, Georgia's chief of forest
protection, in a press statement.