FOLKSTON, Ga. — Ground crews with plows and bulldozers worked Wednesday to box in a vast wildfire threatening small communities at the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia.

Firefighters have battled to keep the blaze away from rural homes near the Georgia-Florida state line since winds last weekend pushed flames outside the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, where lightning sparked the fire April 6. The towns of St. George and Moniac on the swamp’s southeastern edge remained under mandatory evacuations for a fourth day Wednesday with the woods burning just a few miles away.

Planes and helicopters were dropping water and chemical fire retardant on the flames Wednesday as ground crews fortified fire breaks plowed alongside roads to the south and east of the advancing fire, said a spokeswoman for the fire command team.

By Wednesday morning the fire had charred more than 220 square miles, mostly on public land inside the refuge.

Associated Press