Fire Department battles blazes

The Hazlehurst-Jeff Davis County Fire Department has been pretty busy since New Year’s eve, said Fire Chief Charles Wasdin.
Firefighters were called to Beasley Forest Products’ site on J.A. Yawn Road where employees were containing a fire at the old Beasley mill, behind the new facility on the Uvalda Highway,.
“The employees held the fire in check until we got there,” Wasdin said. “The did a good job.”
A fire on Medders Road destroyed a room in a home and its contents. Wasdin said the fire started in a lithium battery charger.
A fire on Amanda Thomas Road “was pretty bad,” Wasdin said. The fire got into the home’s attic and the local fire department received assistance from a corrections fire team from a Montgomery County prison facility.
A fire in a two-story home on Mt. Pleasant Church Road proved challenging for firefighters. Wasdin said his department received help from Coffee County firefighters on that blaze.
Amidst all that, a series of brush fires kept the department busy. “People are burning debris all over the county,” Wasdin said, as people are cleaning up their properties because of the damage caused by Hurricane Helene back in late September.
Fighting the brush fires was made more difficult because of the debris on the ground as a result of Hurricane Helene. The downed debris helped fuel the fires and fire-fighting tractors had to maneuver around downed trees that litter the landscape more than three months after Helene struck the county.