Part of the Nantahala National Forest burned tonight, but not a very big part. The National Weather Service warned that the high winds would make for a fire hazard, and sure enough they blew down a power line. That caused a fire, which the high winds quickly fanned up and over the ridge and down into the next valley. We managed to contain it between the road and a nearby cold water creek, plus some artificial fire breaks created by guys with leaf blowers. That worked until the Forest Service got up there with a bulldozer to plow in a proper fire break.
Now that's some real firefighting! Around here we rarely get more than a prairie grass fire. When they get into the trees it's terrifying. Thank you for this work.
ReplyDeleteDown here in the upstate of SC, our forest service just finished some controlled burns of underbrush on SC Hwy 107 going up the mountain towards the NC state line and Cashiers. I haven't been up the Hwy 28 side towards Highlands yet, but would assume the same there.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see any evidence of that the last time I was there, Mike.
ReplyDeleteOurs was the smallest of several fires that got kicked off by that windstorm. The other two are still only partially controlled as of this morning, but there are crews working them.
Kudos to the guys with leaf blowers and their creativity!
ReplyDelete