Southerners urged to use masks to avoid wildfires smoke

ATLANTA - Wildfires near the Georgia-North Carolina line are spewing smoke so thick that an emergency manager is urging residents to wear special masks if they must do outdoor activities.

The fires have prompted evacuations in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee in recent days.

The largest of dozens of ongoing wildfires in the South has now burned 13,300 acres -- or more than a third of the vast Cohutta Wilderness area -- in the north Georgia mountains just south of the Tennessee line, fire managers said in an update Saturday. It was only 20 percent contained.

The Georgia Forestry Commission said crews are currently working to contain five wildfires -- One on Treat Mountain near Cedartown, three on Lookout Mountain in Dade/Walker County and a fifth in Rocky Face -- in North Georgia, according to a Saturday morning update. The fires are reportedly threatening neighboring homes and causing road closures. This weekend, crews have responded to and extinguished a total of 31 fires in the area, the update said.

In Macon County, North Carolina, special health masks were being made available Saturday. Emergency Management Director Warren Cabe said they're distributing N95-rated masks as regular surgical masks don't provide adequate protection from smoke particles.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.