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A wildfire in the Okefenokee Swamp has burned more than 100,000 acres, firefighters said Thursday.

The rapidly growing fire, fed by fast-burning swamp grasses, was spreading mostly to the west toward the town of Fargo, a tiny city of 380 about eight miles west of the swamp.

The blaze was ignited Saturday by a lightning strike in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Mark Ruggiero, commander of the joint team battling the swamp blazes, said the fire is "still in the refuge, but getting real close to breaking the perimeter," he said.

A 116,480-acre fire in southeast Georgia has been burning since April 16.

In northern Minnesota, high wind fanned a fire around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

A mandatory evacuation order around the area of the landmark Gunflint Lodge, just east of the scenic Gunflint Trail that leads from Grand Marais into the wilderness, was extended Thursday evening another 9 miles east to the area around the Poplar Lake Fire Hall, according to the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center

Bill Paxton, a spokesman for the firefighting effort, said the fire was "challenging" the containment lines. "They're holding right now," he said. "We're having some difficulty holding them, but they're holding now."

The fire had burned more than 34 square miles and destroyed about 45 structures since it started Saturday. Shifting winds Thursday put another 100 buildings at risk, fire officials said.

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