2 massive fires light up Atlanta area’s early morning sky

Two massive fires in the Atlanta area sent flames and columns of smoke into the early morning sky Friday and moved firefighters to evacuate a few homes in one neighborhood.

In one fire, hundreds of wooden pallets burned early Friday in a business’s yard in southeastern Atlanta, sending flames about 75 feet into the air, Atlanta fire spokesman Sgt. Cortez Stafford said.

The blaze was on the property of Pallet Depot, which sells the wooden platforms.

Flames spread to vehicles and forklifts, causing some explosions, Stafford said.

Three nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution. No injuries were reported.

Firefighters extinguished the flames within hours, Stafford said.

Another enormous fire was consuming at least one structure early Friday in an industrial area in Cobb County, just outside northwestern Atlanta, not far from Interstate 285, aerial footage aired by CNN affiliates WGCL and WSB showed.

Details about that fire weren’t immediately available.

Authorities did not immediately release information about the fires’ causes.

The fires come amid particularly dry conditions in Georgia and other parts of the US Southeast.

Atlanta and much of neighboring Cobb County are in a severe drought, and conditions are even worse in areas just to the north and south, the US Drought Monitor says.