That’s why Owen, a Brunswick resident and a Waycross native, spent Thursday running around Glynn County collecting supplies for over 100 firefighters who have responded to the fires in Brantley and Ware counties.

“I think all the resources over there are almost exhausted,” Owen said.

Bottled water, eye drops and moist wipes are needed to help hydrate the volunteers, she said.

As wild fires continue to rage in southeast Georgia, the distances between Glynn County and nearby Brantley and Ware counties seem closer than ever.

And make no mistake about it, says Glynn County Fire Chief Al Thomas, Glynn County is not immune to the disasters that have ravaged the forests in those communities.

“Anytime you’ve got woodlands around and fallen vegetation and hardly any rain and with the winds we’ve been having, a fire can easily spread,” Thomas said.

That’s why any controlled debris burning should be kept at an absolute minimum or avoided altogether, he said.

“People really need to watch what the wind is doing,” he said. “And they really don’t need to be burning right now.”

Thomas could not speculate what caused the inland wild fires but verified at least 20 volunteer and paid firefighters from Glynn County have been sent to the areas since Tuesday to help control its spread.

Jamie Kendall, executive director of the Brunswick chapter of the American Red Cross, said the outpouring of donations from the surrounding communities has been tremendous.

“They have more stuff out there than they could possibly need,” Kendall said. “But we don’t know how long this is going to go on, so if people want to drop off a case of water or whatever by all means, we’ll get it there.”

 She added that there is a potential, by the time the fire is quelled, that at least 200 homes will have been damaged. Fourteen had been totally destroyed by Thursday.

The relief effort is in need of financial assistance, she said.