Residents who’ve been concerned about a massive wildfire in Fannin County finally got good news Tuesday night. The U.S. Forest Service, which held an open house at its Rough Ridge Incident Command Center, told residents the fire is now 30 percent contained and there’s no danger to any structures.
Operation Section Chief Pete Kubiak says they’ve been able to hold the fire to the road system around the Cohutta Wilderness and some areas have not reignited in 48 hours.
“We feel very confident now. We can patrol it much easier than we could patrol the river down here,” he says.
Kubiak says firefighters have also completed their back burning and are now waiting for those fires to "catch up" to the main fire.
It was good news for Vance Rhodes whose Fort Mountain home is five miles away from the fire.
“I’ve seen the containment lines. I feel good about what he’s saying,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.
The U.S. Forest Service says the smoke that’s been more of a problem for both local residents and those in metro Atlanta should be better within a week.
Linda Potzauf, who lives in Epworth, left the meeting encouraged.
“It looks like the end is in sight... with the smoke anyway,” she says.
