Westwood, Georgia

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Fitzgerald census division. It lies in ZIP code area 31750. The Survey maps it on the Fitzgerald West quadrangle.

Westwood within Ben Hill County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1953 USGS Waycross quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1958 USGS Waycross quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1973 USGS Fitzgerald West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1981 USGS Cordele quadrangle1:100000
1988 USGS Waycross quadrangle1:250000

Fires near this place

617 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 617 fires within 5 miles of Westwood between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,227 acres in total. 22 started naturally. 73 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	364
Arson/incendiarism	73
Equipment and vehicle use	57
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	48
Misuse of fire by a minor	26
Natural	22
Railroad operations and maintenance	15
Smoking	6
Recreation and ceremony	6

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2020BEN HILL006
9 September 2010	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2011-BEN HILL-006
9 September 2007	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
8 September 2007	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
8 September 2005	Misuse of fire by a minor	9.8 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
6 September 1997	Debris and open burning	1.4 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
6 September 1995	Arson/incendiarism	1.6 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
5 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2021BEN HILL009

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Ben Hill County

Storms near this place

11 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Westwood in 11 storm reports between 2013 and 2023: 9 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2015	Lightning	Westwood	1 hurt, $5,000	Lightning struck a tree limb that then fell through a roof and struck a woman in the face. Damage was estimated.
January 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	$50,000	Power lines were blown down along with some structural damage to outbuildings and a shop in northwestern Ben Hill county in the vicinity of Sweet Pea and Salem Church Road.
January 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	$3,000	Trees and power lines were blown down on 10 Mile Road in Fitzgerald. Monetary damage was estimated.
August 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	$500	A tree was blown down onto Pear Road.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	-	Trees were blown down along Walker Ave on the west side of Fitzgerald.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	-	A tree blew down at the intersection of Ivemeyer Road and Lower Rebecca Road.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	-	A tree was blown down along 10 Mile Road.
April 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	-	Trees were blown down along Pear Road.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	-	A couple of trees were blown down near Fitzgerald.
August 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Westwood	-	A tree was blown down across Primrose Road.
March 2015	Hail	Westwood	-	Nickel to quarter size hail was reported across northwestern Ben Hill county.

Every storm recorded in Ben Hill County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Fitzgerald	2.5 miles	8
Lulaville	3.9 miles	8
Queensland	5.3 miles	8
Ashton	7.5 miles	8
Bowens Mill	8.6 miles	8
Red Bluff	15.6 miles	7

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 333400. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.