Southern Wildfires Burn 80000 Acres Across Six States

However, fires throughout northern Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina all have the potential to affect air quality, according to the national USDA Forest Service. About 13 of those fires are still active.

Governor Pat McCrory announced today that the state is offering a reward of up to $10,000 to be issued to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who are responsible for setting wildfires in western North Carolina. “But this is really a grassroots effort of men and women fighting the fire hand-in-hand”.

The work early in the week for Stepp and his crew was keeping the fire from reaching homes in the area, and helping the Forest Service control the burnout by night.

Party Rock Fire information can be found on INCIWEB or on the Town of Lake Lure Facebook page.

Meanwhile, starting campfires, lighting fireworks and smoking cigarettes are among the outdoor activities being banned across the South as the fires burn in forests stressed by drought.

Firefighters have now contained 32 percent of the Party Rock fire Friday in western North Carolina.

A state of emergency remains in place due to ongoing drought conditions and wildfire threats.

South of Morganton, at South Mountains State Park, the Chestnut Knob fire has burned 4,600 acres of steep terrain.

Heisey said the smaller fires burn fuel before the larger blazes can get to it, and this helps prevent the fires from spreading beyond the containment perimeters. Reinforcements have arrived from at least 37 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, she said this week.

Associated Press writers Tom Foreman Jr. contributed from North Carolina and Jonathan Mattise from Tennessee.

The fires have exhausted resources and required outside assistance from other agencies.

Alford said the Wake County crews would likely switch out personnel and leave their equipment in the mountains for the next wave of firefighters to use.

(AP Photo/John Bazemore). A wildfire smolders after burning a hillside Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in Clayton, Ga. “It’s a once-in-100-year kind of thing for this time of year”.

That has happened only three other times: 1904, 1952 and 1961, Channel 2 meteorologist Karen Minton said.

Greathouse said it will take a rain event with about one quarter of an inch of rain to make a difference in the dry conditions.

About 280 Swain County residents crowded into a fire update meeting November 13 at Southwestern Community College’s Swain Campus, and that gathering alone was enough to see that gratitude for the firefighters tirelessly working to preserve their communities was high, Smith said.

A Code Orange air quality alert has been issued for East and Middle Tennessee.