6,000 asked to evacuate wildfire area

Firefighters made slow progress against a pair of wildfires that covered nearly 50 square miles of tinder-dry forest and destroyed 18 homes. Authorities asked about 6,000 people to evacuate.

The fires in southeastern Georgia threatened the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, one of the nation's best-preserved wetland areas.

One of the fires jumped a firebreak into the Okefenokee Swamp and sent a thick haze of smoke wafting through Waycross, a city of 15,300 along the swamp's northern edge, said Robin Cole of the Georgia Forestry Commission.