News Bulletin: The wildfire season that kicked off Sunday with a blaze on Aetna Mountain that spread into Dade's Hooker community is now going for Act Two on Fox Mountain in Rising Fawn. Dade County Executive Chairman Ted Rumley reported on Tuesday evening that the east side of the mountain was ablaze and that the flames were spreading fast.
Rumley said the Georgia Forestry Commission--which had just wound down earlier that afternoon from three days at the Aetna fire--was already on the job. "They've got some helicopters coming in the morning and two dozers here on the side of the mountain trying to work their way up to it right now," he said by telephone from the scene.
Fox's remoteness means accessibility problems for the firefighting effort, with the main way into the affected area being a concrete tunnel beneath I-59. Rumley said the firefighters were using old firebreak and logging roads to scale Fox's rugged slopes.
Chief Ranger Heath Morton of the Georgia Forestry Commission checked in briefly this morning with the news that he now had four bulldozers and one helicopter on the job. "It's running along the top of Fox and backing down off the side," he said of the fire. He had no idea how many acres were involved presently -- "Give me a couple of days" -- but Chairman Rumley said the fire had doubled in size since last night and was visible from his office in Trenton.
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