Governor offers reward in North Carolina fires

Dozens of fires scorched tens of thousands of acres in the North Carolina mountains within the last 10 days, resulting in evacuation of thousands of people, hazardous air quality conditions and other situations more common to fires in the Western states. It’s now cost more than $12 million dollars to fight the flames.

Firefighters from all over from all over the state and country have been assisting local crews. The Party Rock fire is expected to grow further over the coming days because of weather conditions, which will get warmer and dryer as the weekend approaches. “At times when the smoke was the most thick, I was finding myself coughing heavily getting up and down from my bunk in my dorm”.

“Dry weather, high winds and the continuing drought is driving the large growth of fires”, said Dave Martin, Deputy Director of Operations for Fire and Aviation Management for the US Forest Service’s Southern Region. Nonetheless, the masks could help, she said.

Historic and unprecedented are the words the United States Forest Service is using to describe this Georgia fire season.

The department’s brush truck is operating 24 hours a day. “As a firefighter in Zebulon, we show up to a fire and we put it out. We’re making sure that they have 3 hot meals a day”. They say the evacuation should be completed by 5 p.m. Corporations, faith groups, and average people have all donated thousands of dollars-worth of items. “This is extremely unsafe work, and I especially want to thank the firefighters, first responders, sheriffs and other emergency personnel that have risked their own lives to protect our citizens and property”.

The fires could take weeks to extinguish, and a lack of rain in the forecast has added to concerns, said Wendy Burnett, spokeswoman for the Georgia Forestry Commission.

He said he expects flames to burn for some time.

McCrory said dry conditions in the area could cause the fires to last several months.

“We have been lighting (man-made) fire and it has been holding well”, she said. “We don’t know if it’s intentional or not”.

A release Tuesday afternoon from the North Carolina and US forest services says “the weather has not been conducive for large fire growth the past couple days, but those conditions will change later this week”. “These are California-like wildfires in North Carolina and we don’t want them to expand anymore”. Alabama’s fire marshal says state officers are investigating two of almost 1,100 statewide wildfires as possible arson. Travel to this re-entry checkpoint must occur from the Lake Lure (south) side of Highway 74-A/64, and not from the Bat Cave (north) side of these roads; the Village of Chimney Rock remains closed.

Anyone having information concerning these wildfires should contact Macon County Crimestoppers at 828-349-2600 or Jackson County Crimestoppers at 828-631-1125.