Two wildfires in southeastern Georgia continue to threaten homes and lives as officials warn that strong winds could spread the flames. Brantley County Manager Joey Cason posted a video to social media calling for people to “please evacuate” if they get an order to do so. The Highway 82 Fire has been burning since Monday and has destroyed at least 87 homes. The fire’s perimeter is more than 14.8 square miles. Meanwhile a second fire about 70 miles to the southwest in Clinch and Echols counties has burned more than 46.9 square miles and destroyed at least 35 homes. As of Saturday both were only about 10% contained.
From
To
Officials say a volunteer firefighter has died battling a wildfire in Florida, while two large fires in Georgia have destroyed more than 120 homes. The sheriff's office in Nassau County, Florida, said Friday that volunteer firefighter James “Kevin” Crews died Thursday after suffering an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire. Meanwhile, crews are battling two large fires in southeast Georgia that Gov. Brian Kemp says have destroyed 120 homes. Fire officials say thousands more remain threatened. Kemp said no other wildfire in Georgia's history have burned so many homes. He said investigators believe the fire in rural Brantley County was sparked by an aluminum party balloon touching power lines.
The two explosions at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant came decades apart. The first, on April 26, 1986, spread a cloud of deadly radiation that raised fears across Europe and some say hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukrainian officials say the second, on Feb. 14, 2025, was caused by a Russian drone. While not as catastrophic, it sparked new anxieties about Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor, striking the site that symbolized so much suffering for Ukraine. The drone hit what is known as the New Safe Confinement structure, the $2.1 billion archlike shell completed in 2019 to enclose the hastily built concrete “sarcophagus” to keep what was left of the damaged reactor from leaking radiation.
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (AP) — Their mission was to clean up the worst nuclear accident in history.
Wildfires are often thought to be a problem for Western North America, but climate change and other factors are making fires nastier in the East, especially this year. That’s because of the combination of record drought levels in the Southeast, tens of millions of tons of downed trees from Hurricane Helene and climate change causing the air to suck up more moisture from dead plants to make them more flammable. With massive Nebraska fires this year, already 2,800 square miles of wildfires have burned so far in 2026 — far more than in recent years.
Firefighter heard ‘stop, stop’ before LaGuardia jet crash, but didn’t know who it was for, NTSB says
The National Transportation Safety Board says a firefighter whose truck collided with an Air Canada jet last month on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing both pilots, heard an air traffic controller warn “stop, stop, stop” but didn’t know who it was for. That's according to an investigative report released on Thursday. The NTSB said in a preliminary report on the March 22 crash that a crash prevention system for air traffic controllers didn’t generate an audio or visual alert. The report said the truck started moving while warning lights that act as a stop sign for crossing traffic were still lit.
AP Wire
Fallen trees and limbs scattered across Georgia by Hurricane Helene more than a year ago are now helping fuel destructive wildfires in the state. Georgia officials say wooded areas in the state's bottom half are packed with debris from the hurricane. Blustery winds and an ongoing drought also are helping ignite and expand the fires in both Georgia and Florida. Hundreds of people have been forced from their homes near Georgia’s coast. A wildfire there has destroyed more than 50 homes and is threatening many more. The fires have sent smoke drifting over several states in the Southeast, leading to air quality warnings as far away as Columbia, South Carolina.
Today is Thursday, April 23, the 113th day of 2026. There are 252 days left in the year.
AP Wire
Wildfires have intensified intensifying across the U.S. Southeast. More than 50 homes have been destroyed in Georgia. The fires also have forced evacuations. Some of the biggest blazes are along Georgia’s coast and around Jacksonville, Florida. Drought and strong winds are fueling the fires. Georgia’s two largest wildfires have burned over 33 square miles. In Brantley County, more evacuations were ordered Wednesday on top of 800 evacuations that had taken place. So far, there have been no major injuries reported. In Florida, firefighters are battling more than 130 wildfires that have burned 39 square miles. The National Weather Service warns that low humidity and winds will keep the fire danger elevated.
Mexican authorities continued to contradict themselves over the role of two CIA agents in a counternarcotics operation in northern Mexico and the extent to which Mexico’s federal government was aware of the U.S. involvement in the incident, which has started to ignite tensions with the White House. The officials were returning from destroying a drug lab in northern Mexico. Two Mexican investigators also died in the crash. Sheinbaum emphasized that U.S. agents shouldn't operate in Mexico without consent. She ruled out a new strategy by the U.S. to deploy agents without Mexico’s knowledge and highlighted existing communication with the U.S. State Department.