About 30 acres of land on Short Mountain burned Tuesday afternoon. Dispatchers at the county 9-1-1 Center alerted the Short Mountain Fire Department around 1:21pm of a fire along Judge Purser Road. However, recent rainfall may have kept the blaze from spreding further. According to Forester Joe Bryson, “The recent rainfall was helpful in many ways on this fire. Most of the fire was surface fire; any drier and this could have been different.”
The burn area started at the base of a hill and moved upward. Kudzu assisted in spreading the blaze. The terrain made battling the fire line difficult. Several calls from the site stressed the need for additional manpower. As the work continued, fire departments from East Side, Woodbury and Mooretown were called to assist. DeKalb County sent two forestry personnel and an additional four firefighters to help.
There was a permitted burn taking place in the area at the time. No buildings were damaged in the fire. Forestry personnel will be on the scene again Wednesday to obtain an accurate measurement. Early indications are that three property owners were affected by the fire.
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