Brush fires spread

On a warm Thursday afternoon, brush fires spread near Molena as the wind blew the flames close to several homes. According to fire chief Randy Snyder, a 29-acre brush fire on Union School Road threatened three residences. ’We set up a perimeter around the houses and let the Georgia Forestry Commission plow around the actual fire,’ he said. ‘The second was a 1.6 acre fire on Dripping Rock Road where we had to protect one structure. They were both fires that got out of control.’ Snyder said when the weather is dry, people get outside and burn leaves and it often gets out of control. There were more brush fires over the weekend, including one in the city limits of Molena that threatened a couple of houses. ’It’s been dry for about a week now, so we see more and more brush fires, especially on the weekends,’ he said. ‘People need to be really conscientious about burning. They need to get burn permits from Georgia Forestry and they desperately need to check the weather and concentrate when burning because it’s so dry.’