Southern fires rage with 41.6 million now living in drought

ATLANTA (AP) — Unseasonably warm dry weather has deepened a drought that's igniting forest fires across the southeastern U.S., forcing people to flee homes in the Appalachian Mountains and blanketing Atlanta in a smoky haze.

Today's national drought report shows 41.6 million people in parts of 15 southern states living in drought conditions. The worst drought is in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, but extreme drought also is spreading into the western Carolinas, and Kentucky and Tennessee had the most fires.

All but two of the 61 active large wildfires nationwide today were in the Southeast, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Nearly a dozen large fires were uncontained, with 14 more breaking out today.

"Right now we're kind of holding our own," said Jennifer Turner, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky's state Division of Forestry. "We've been able to get control over some of the smaller fires."

Nearly 390 firefighters and support crews and a half-dozen water-dumping helicopters were battling 20 fires in Kentucky today that together have burned nearly 20,000 acres, Turner said.

Humidity is so low in the normally lush Appalachians that forestry officials are bracing for more.

North Carolina's Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency for a fourth of his state's 100 counties, to help with evacuations and provide more assets to fight the fires.