Buck Kline is red from the heat and black from the smoke.

The Georgia Forestry Commission’s chief ranger is also exhausted after spending two days battling wildfires.

On Tuesday, he was standing with other rangers outside the smoky remains of a Brantley County forest.

“We have it about 50 percent contained right now,” Kline said, gesturing to the ashes behind him. “It will probably take us weeks before it is completely out.”

He worries that the combination of dry weather and high winds could rekindle the fire, which had already burned about 4,000 acres in Brantley County as of Tuesday afternoon.

In neighboring Ware County, it’s been worse. Some 19,000 acres have been consumed by fire.

The fire situation in Southeast Georgia has been so bad of late that Gov. Sonny Perdue is now seeking the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The fire in Brantley County started around 3 p.m. Monday inside the Kneeknockers Hunting Club and had spread almost 2.6 miles by late Monday evening. At one point there were fears that the flames would reach downtown Nahunta. Residents in other areas were evacuated and housed in shelters set up by the Red Cross.

The fire was fanned by high winds, some gusting up to 30 mph, that steered it in different directions throughout the day, posing a threat to rangers fighting it at the edge, firefighters said.

Working into the early morning hours Tuesday, foresters used tractor units to dig deep trenches, known as firebreaks, into the ground. Pulling up roots and trees, the tractors carved trails of dirt around the edges of the wildfire to prevent it from spreading.

The plan of attack worked. Residents were allowed to return their homes early Tuesday, and by 1 p.m., the fire had been reduced mostly to ashes and embers.

A helicopter with the Forestry Commission continued to dump water on the area Tuesday afternoon.

“We have been going pretty hard for the past three weeks now,” said Mark McClellan, chief ranger in Brunswick who helped fight the Nahunta blaze. “We have had a lot of fires.”

Kline and McClellan said they will head to Ware County to help fight that fire.

Andrew Altman, operations officer for the Brantley County Emergency Management Agency, already has been there.

He fought the Nahunta blaze until 3 a.m. Tuesday, got some sleep and then left for Ware County at 6 a.m.

“It’s like walking straight into the gates of hell,” he said of the Ware County fire. “It is 10 times worse than (the fire) in Brantley.”

Rangers blame the wildfires on a statewide drought.

“We have extreme fire conditions right now,” Brunswick ranger McClellan said. “There will be absolutely no burning permits issued in Glynn County until further notice.”