The Charlotte Observer
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With one of their South Carolina homes threatened by the Persimmon Ridge wildfire, and another mountainside home not far from a group of fires in Western North Carolina, Rodney and Sheila Nelson had a stressful week.
The couple, now staying at their third home in Polk County, N.C., on Thursday, had just been at one of their Greenville County, S.C., homes packing up some personal belongings and filling a trailer with equipment like a cement mixer and tiller.
They said they were now trying to fix up their home on Skyuka Mountain to try and reduce the chances of it being burned down. While fire hasn’t encroached on the home yet, a fire burned on the other side of the mountain, Rodney Nelson said.
“It’s unusual,” Sheila Nelson said, sharing a basket of tortilla chips with her husband at Cocula Mexican Grill in nearby Columbus, N.C., on Thursday afternoon.
The couple decided to move some of their belongings out of their home after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ordered an evacuation for the street it’s on. He also ordered evacuations for areas of Pickens County, and South Carolina issued an outdoor burning ban this week.
They said they recognized it was unique to have three homes being threatened by wildfires, and it was stressful.
Wildfires have burned thousands of acres in North and South Carolina, prompting evacuation orders in some communities as dry and windy conditions have helped the fires spread. In Polk County, N.C., three fires have burned more than 6,000 acres and have grown large enough to be seen by satellites.
The Nelsons were among just a few customers at Cocula in afternoon.
Co-owner Lina Olarte said the restaurant has seen patrons fluctuate since the wildfires started. On days when the sky and air are clearer, there’s normal lunch and dinner traffic. But when the air quality is poor, fewer people dine in.
“A lot of the population here is older people and families with kids,” Olarte said. “So they want to be safe, I’m sure.”
In parts of Polk County, it was hard to tell that just a few miles north of Columbus, some of nearly 500 firefighters from North Carolina and other states were battling wildfires that spread to nearby Henderson County. A statewide burning ban was issued in North Carolina as well.
In nearby Tryon, Thursday appeared to be just another day as people walked the streets and popped in and out of shops and restaurants. Some people could be seen running or walking their dogs in Mill Spring. And school buses dropped students off in Columbus in the late afternoon.
An American Red Cross volunteer sitting outside of the Polk County Senior Center, which is serving as an evacuation center for the county, said only two residents were staying there. And the shelter has been relatively quiet this week.
Many people opt to stay with family or friends instead of the shelter, said Bo Dossett, a public information officer with the N.C. Forest Service.
Forest Service worker gives insight
Dossett, who was working at the Tryon International Equestrian Center and Resort in Mill Spring on Thursday, said North Carolina hasn’t seen wildfire season as bad as this year since 2016.
“We are going to see more wildfires fueled by Helene, like they’ve having right now,” said Dossett, who normally works as a Forest Service ranger in Madison County, north of Asheville. “We’re getting very used to hearing on the radio of a forest ranger rolling up to a fire and saying, ‘One acre, the fires running up hill, the fire is in heavy downed, damaged timber from storm blow down.’”
The Black Cove Fire, Deep Woods Fire and Fish Hook Fire in Polk County have destroyed 22 structures, forced evacuations on 18 roads, and required an injured firefighter be airlifted to a hospital, authorities have said.
The three fires have burned private and state-owned land. The N.C. Forest Service, which tracks wildfires on its website, said the steep terrain of the Green River Gorge, where two of the fires started, has hampered firefighting efforts.
As of Thursday morning, 17% of the Black Cove Fire had been contained, while firefighters had contained 11% of the Deep Woods Fire and 86% of the Fish Hook Fire.
Dossett said fires burn the hottest on the southern faces of the mountain. Because of Hurricane Helene’s rotation when remnants of the storm hit the region, much of the wildfire’s fuel is near those areas of the mountains.
While damage from Helene left plenty of fuel for wildfires to grow in Polk County, counties further north, such as Mitchell, Avery and Yancey counties, have even more, Dossett said. The reason they haven’t had fires yet is because of their higher elevations.
“They tend to be cooler and a little bit damper,” he said.
But when fires start to burn in any region, he said, they grow larger and more visible, and have a bigger impact in the affected areas, he said. Fires that would have been routine before Helene have now become “long, drawn out, complicated incidents.”
Gov. Stein visits region
“Residents, please make sure you have emergency alerts on and pay attention to evacuation orders,” N.C. Gov. Josh Stein said on social media Wednesday.
Stein appeared Thursday at the Tryon International Equestrian Center and Resort, which was serving as a command center for the N.C. Forest Service, to talk to workers about their plans for fighting the wildfires. He took some press questions before leaving the facility.
“I came up today because today is the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Helene and we’re going to do commemorations of the 106 lives that were lost by the storm,” Stein said. “Here I am in Polk County, and these folks are experiencing a double whammy.”
He said there were 500 fires this month that affected nearly 10,000 acres. That is nearly three times of what is typical for this time of year, Stein said.
He said he was encouraged by the strategies the firefighters were taking.
Some other North Carolina counties were under evacuation orders as well, the state’s Emergency Management agency said, including Henderson, Transylvania and Swain counties. Stein issued a state of emergency on Wednesday to help increase resources going toward combating the wildfires.
“There are things that we can do to mitigate the risks. You can’t prevent the risk, but you can take measures to reduce the likelihood that the fire will come to places where there are people and property,” Stein said. “I had money in my budget that I submitted to the General Assembly for funding to help. ... They didn’t fully fund everything I’ve asked.”
He said he was going to go back to the General Assembly with another budget request that includes a package for fighting fires.
“Because what we cannot have happen is the pain, the suffering that the people of Western North Carolina experienced from Hurricane Helene be compounded by a summer of fires,” he said.
As Sheila and Rodney Nelson’s meals arrived at Cocula, the couple was in good spirits. Despite the stress, Sheila Nelson said she thinks the firefighters have things under control.
“I think we’re going to be all right,” Rodney Nelson said.
If you have to run from a wildfire in NC, here’s what to pack in your evacuation kit
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