Georgia Forestry Commission Public Relations Director Wendy Burnett said the Georgia Forestry Commission is currently working multiple wildfires on St. Catherine's Island in Liberty County.

“We are working closely with the St. Catherine's Island Foundation on all suppression efforts,” she said, reporting that the fires were started on June 10 by cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.

Burnett said dry conditions and large amounts of dead and down timber are making these efforts difficult.

“We are trying to preserve areas of archeological and cultural importance, which complicates our suppression efforts further,” she said. “We are using natural firebreaks (streams, existing paths, etc.) where possible. We have not yet been able to GPS the fires on the ground, but we estimate that the fires are affecting between 800 to 1,000 acres.”

Burnett said those numbers are expected to change once they’re able to get accurate GPS measurements.

“The fire will burn for a while — until we get significant rainfall in the area,” she said, adding that there is “no threat to public safety at this point.”