The Nation : Marines Help Battle Fire
Marines and farmers joined firefighters to contain a 10-mile-wide inferno raging on the North Carolina coast as Gov. Jim Martin declared 34 counties a disaster area. Martin asked President Reagan for federal aid to cope with the fires which have destroyed 74 homes and blackened 119,000 acres of forest, causing $51-million damage. At dawn, 140 Marines joined rangers, farmers and volunteer firefighters and started flooding fields to combat stubborn underground peat fires. More than 30 persons have been injured, mostly firefighters felled by smoke.
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