By JONATHAN MATTISE
Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Starting campfires, lighting fireworks and smoking cigarettes are among the outdoor activities being banned across the South as fires burn in forests stressed by drought.
Even parking a car off-road is prohibited for fear that a hot tailpipe could ignite dry leaves below.
U.S. Forest Service spokesman Adam Rondeau has said the agency is tracking wildfires that have burned a total of 80,000 acres across the South. That includes a north Georgia fire that’s burned an area the size of Manhattan.
The Tennessee Valley Authority issued a burn ban Tuesday on its public lands across Tennessee and in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. The authority said its ban applies to anything that might produce an open flame.
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