Fires are raging across North and South Carolina—and the coming weather could make them worse

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 west of Charlotte, according to county spokesperson Kellie Cannon.

Three fires burned at least 7.5 square miles 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 are 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 Governor 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, 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 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.

How a September hurricane is creating March fires

Scheller, the North Carolina State University professor, predicted this busy fire season if the region saw dry weather following Helene.

Scientists saw something similar in 2022 when a fire burned more than 51 square miles of timberland in the Florida Panhandle. The Bertha Swamp Road Fire almost directly followed the eye pattern from 2018’s Hurricane Michael and the fallen pine trees left behind.

Pines and their waxy needles dry out and become very flammable, Scheller said. The fallen trunks can also block roads and paths used to fight fires, experts said.

The last ingredient to fuel wildfires is dry weather. Despite recent rain, the Carolinas are undergoing an extreme drought, according to federal monitors.

The common denominator for many fires on the East Coast is human activity, whether people burn debris, light a campfire that isn’t well watched, or toss out cigarette, Scheller said.

And more people living next to areas that can burn make fires a bigger threat, he said.

New Jersey fire

A forest fire burning in New Jersey’s million-acre Pinelands region was 100% contained on Monday morning, the New Jersey Forest Fire Services said in a post on X. The fire was first spotted Saturday and burned through about 3.5 square miles.

That blaze led authorities to evacuate two campgrounds in Wharton State Forest, officials said. The cause was under investigation.

Fire forecast

A front moving off the East Coast brought rain and more humidity to the area, helping firefighters Monday.

But not much rain fell, and temperatures are expected to get warmer and the air drier as the week goes on, likely meaning another round of wildfires unless people follow burn bans and fire safety.

“It is absolutely paramount that folks respect the statewide ban on all open burning,” North Carolina Forest Service spokesperson Philip Jackson said.