Large brush fire shuts down Buford Highway for hours
Atlanta firefighters spent most of Wednesday afternoon battling a large brush fire near a homeless encampment that closed a section of Buford Highway.
The fire, which could be seen by drivers on both Ga. 400 and I-85, broke out around 1 p.m. near the 2500 block of Lenox Road. It caused Buford Highway to be closed between Lenox Road and Sidney Marcus Boulevard.
Officials confirmed the fire was brought under control after several hours. No injuries were reported.
“There was smoke, there was a lot of heat,” Atlanta fire Battalion Chief Quincey Watts told Channel 2 Action News. “A lot of hazards in that particular area.”
Southbound lanes of Buford Highway reopened at about 5 p.m., while it took much longer for northbound lanes to reopen.
At one point, smoke could be seen billowing from a triangular stand of trees bordered by Buford Highway, I-85 and Lenox Road.
It’s not clear what sparked the fire.
The location is a little more than a mile north of the site of the fire that caused the I-85 bridge collapse in 2017.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
About the Authors
Henri Hollis is a restaurant critic and food reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he covers Atlanta’s restaurants, chefs and dining culture. As part of the AJC’s Food & Dining team, he reviews new restaurants, reports on industry trends and explores metro Atlanta’s culinary scene through the neighborhoods and people that shape it.
Rosana Hughes is an award-winning bilingual (fluent in Spanish) journalist with a passion for explanatory public service journalism. She has been a reporter on the breaking news team since January 2022.
