State of emergency in NC mountains as wildfire near Hendersonville doubles in size; 3 fires scorch 2,700+ acres
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) — Officials have declared a state of emergency in a western North Carolina community where a wildfire doubled in size overnight — and a new fire in another county was sparked over the weekend — with hundreds of burned acres, some structures and the continued threat of dozens of homes.
The new state of emergency in North Carolina comes just a day after the N.C. Forest Service issued a burn ban for 14 counties — nearly all in the mountains.
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Orange County firefighters from the Hillsborough area will be deployed to the mountains to help fire crews, along with firefighters from Currituck County at the North Carolina coast, both agencies said Monday.
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The now 431-acre fire in Henderson County — at 250 acres just Sunday — has destroyed two homes, a cabin and an outbuilding, county officials said in a social media post Sunday that declared a state of emergency.
Officials have identified 75 other structures in the Edneyville area that are threatened by the Poplar Drive Fire and said fire departments are focusing on structure protection while North Carolina Forest Services is focusing on putting in fire lines.
Meanwhile, crews are fighting a two-week-old uncontained blaze in Cherokee County near Andrews that has grown to more than 2,150 acres, but is not threatening structures, the U.S. Forest Service said.
That lightning-sparked fire, called the Collett Ridge Fire, has grown from 1,600 acres to 2,158 acres in just a day and it has 110 crews working to put it out, officials said.
Dozens of trails were closed Monday in the DuPont State Forest, according to the N.C. Forest Service.
A new 125-acre fire popped up over the weekend called the East Fork Fire in Jackson County on the Nantahala Ranger District of the Nantahala National Forest within the Savannah Fire District.
“Several counties in Western North Carolina are currently in a severe drought, and we are seeing wildfire activity increase due to dry conditions. Because dry conditions are expected to continue this burn ban is necessary to reduce the risk of fires starting and spreading quickly,” the statement said.
The city of Asheville also had a scare when a fast-moving wildfire jumped a road and threatened several homes Sunday — getting to within 15 feet of one house. Several homes had to be evacuated before crews stopped the fire and two planes dropped water on the area.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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