Firefighters in North and South Carolina were battling multiple wind-driven wildfires Monday in rugged terrain that complicated containment efforts, officials said.
Millions of trees knocked down by Hurricane Helene last year combined with long stretches of dry weather this spring are making for a long and active fire season in the Carolinas, North Carolina State University forestry and environmental resources professor Robert Scheller said.
“Helene just dropped tons of fuel on the ground,” Scheller said. “Then these flash droughts allow that fuel to dry out very fast.”
Both South Carolina and North Carolina have issued statewide bans on outdoor burning.
North Carolina fires
Mandatory evacuations continue for about 165 properties in parts of Polk County in western North Carolina, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) west of Charlotte, according to county spokesperson Kellie Cannon.
Three fires burned at least 7.5 square miles (19.5 square kilometers) in the county and the two larger blazes were completely uncontained, Cannon said in a social media update Monday morning. The Black Cove Fire, one of the larger ones, was moving toward neighboring Henderson County, Cannon said.
Kim Callaway, who lives near one of the evacuated areas in Polk County, has prepared her home, WLOS-TV reported.
“We’ve already actually evacuated everything that we thought that was important,” Callaway said. “And now we’re just staying at the house and trying to do what we can to get our house prepared if the firemen need to show up and hold the line.”
A downed power line sparked the Black Cove Fire, but the causes of the other two fires in Polk County were under investigation, according to North Carolina Forest Service spokesperson Jeremy Waldrop.
A number of other wildfires burning across the state including one that damaged 500 vehicles at a salvage yard in Burke County, officials said.
South Carolina fires
Two fires in the South Carolina mountains have led Gov. Henry McMaster to declare a state of emergency.
One fire was in Table Rock State Park in Pickens County and the other was on Persimmon Ridge in Greenville County. Winds and difficult mountainous terrain allowed blazes to grow, the South Carolina Forestry Commission said.
The Table Rock Fire expanded to more than 2 square miles (5.3 square kilometers), including several hundred acres that firefighters intentionally burned to try to contain the flames, officials said.
The Persimmon Ridge Fire, which started Saturday, spread to more than 1.25 square miles (3.2 square kilometers) despite many dozens of water drops, the commission said.
Human activity ignited both the Table Rock and Persimmon Ridge fires. No injuries had been reported, and while no structures were imminently threatened, voluntary evacuations of about 100 homes remained in place.
