Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in 25 counties Thursday to help the state combat more than 20 active wildfires. The N.C. Forest Service has issued a ban on any open burning in the area and cancelled burning permits in 25 counties.
Evacuations have been ordered in Clay, Graham, Macon, Rutherford and Swain counties.
According to a press release from McCrory earlier this week, the fires are the most serious to occur in the state since the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“We have hundreds upon hundreds of acres that are under fire, causing tremendous smoke,” McCrory said in the statement.
Don Simon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, said one fire was caused by a lightning strike. Others are currently being labeled as human-caused but are still under investigation. No injuries have been reported and there has been little structural damage.
“We’ve had acres burned, about 6,000 or so acres, but only one structure — an abandoned, dilapidated building — burned down,” he said. “Other than that, we’ve had no damage, except for the forest, which will regrow if we get some rain.”
According to Steve Norman, a research ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service, this year is the seventh driest on record in the area since 1895. However, he said forest health will not be heavily impacted by the fires, despite their unusual abundance and unpredictability.
“A lot of these forests that are burning are oak-dominated forests, and they are historically very fire-adaptive,” he said. “It’s not like a fire is the end of time; you have to be careful how you talk about wildfire in a fire-adaptive system.”
