PILOT MOUNTAIN – Officials say the fire that has been burning for several days and covering more than 1,000 acres is the result of an escaped campfire in an undesignated area.
As of Wedneday evening, officials with the North Carolina Forest Service said the fire has been roughly 50% contained and has burned about 1,050 acres. The fire is currently staying within containment lines, officials said, and minimal scattered smoldering was seen Wednesday.
What You Need to Know
The fire was first reported Saturday at Pilot Mountain State Park
North Carolina Forestry Service officials say the fire was human-caused
There are no homes or private buildings threatened by the fire
The fire was first reported Saturday afternoon at Pilot Mountain State Park, northwest of Winston-Salem. As of Wednesday, there were about 87 firefighting personnel on the mountain.
“After midnight the wind picked up ...the fire made a lot of ground, it is backing down the mountain and there was some significant acreage increase last night," said Jimmy Holt with the state forest service earlier this week.
“The weather has not been in our favor,” Holt said. “We’re letting the fire progress down the mountain.”
A large cloud of smoke rose from the park Monday morning, blowing to the west. The smoke can be seen for miles. Signs along Highway 52 warned of heavy smoke along the road.
Holt said the fire began around the start of the Grindstone Trail, a steep path that leads to the iconic knob at the mountain’s summit.
“It was human-caused in some way, it wasn’t a lightning strike,” Holt said. But he said they didn’t know exactly how the fire got started.
There are no homes or private buildings threatened by the fire, but firefighters are working to protect two or three park buildings in the area, Holt said.
“We’re going to keep the fire all on State Park property, we’re going to keep it on mountain,” he said.
Crews are digging containment lines around the base of the mountain, following the tracks of the line dug for the last wildfire at the park in 2012, Holt said. Crews will then burn back up the mountain from those lines to keep the fire contained in the park.
“When leaves fall every night across those containment lines, then that provides an easy method for transportation, you know fire re-burning and crossing the containment line,” Holt said.
Despite the weather, Hold said, one thing that’s helping is the prescribed burns at Pilot Mountain and other state parks that keeps down underbrush and makes it easier for firefighters to get in and put the fires out.
The forecast this week is windy and dry with no rainfall predicted, Holt said, “so we’re going to be here a while.”
The steep terrain on Pilot Mountain is making this fire more difficult to fight.
“We try to get on the fires as quickly as we can and keep this small. If it was on flat ground, it probably would have been a fairly easy fire to suppress,” Holt said. “In that kind of terrain and topography, containment is very challenging.”
Several campers were evacuated from the Pilot Mountain campground Saturday night. North Carolina State Parks say they expect the park to be closed for the rest of the week.
Firefighters from around the region responded to help contain the wildfire.
There are no burn bans in the area Monday, but state officials asked people to avoid open burning.
“Increased fire danger exists for most of the state. Postpone any outdoor burning, especially across the Mountains, Piedmont and Sandhills. If you do burn, check for local restrictions on open burning. Have a water source and phone nearby,” North Carolina Forest Service officials said Monday.