Wildfire Continues To Grow Downeast
Photo Courtesy of NCFS
The Evan’s Road Fire continues to grow a week after it was started by a lighting bolt. Fire personnel from Federal, State, and Local departments have been able to get 40% containment but knocking this fire fully out will take months. The fire is consuming the trees and the brush on the surface but it is the ground itself that is proving to be the difficult fuel to extinguish.
Combating this fire is different from fighting most forest fires, Thompson said. Once the surface fire burns away brush and crops, what remains are pocosin fuels — decayed plant matter that smolders rather than burns. With the earth itself aflame, firefighters are taking a different approach to putting it out. Instead of hosing the fire down, firefighters will flood the burning area in order to raise the water table from below, which Thompson said would extinguish the fire from below. Crews will then use pumper trucks and hoses to extinguish hotspots.
Photo Courtesy of NCFS
Weather is also a factor in the fire fighting effort with much of North Carolina breaking record high temperatures as the area is in the grips of a heat wave. Incident Command reported a noontime temperature of 101’f. The fire itself has had a reported wall of flames that was 250 feet in the air as well as a smoke plume that is reaching 40,000 + feet and creating it’s own weather system.
The smoke plume from the fire — which has reached as high as 45,000 feet — is large enough to create its own weather. Friday night the smoke spawned a thunderstorm the threw at least 200 lightning bolts at the area in and around the fire. Thunder from that storm could be heard as far as Washington. Saturday evening, the smoke plume was clearly visible from Washington — appearing as a large white cloud looming on the northeast horizon. Ash has rained east of the fire as far as Elizabeth City Thompson said.
“It looks like an atom bomb went off out here,” one firefighter could be heard over the team’s radio system Saturday afternoon. “Looks like the smoke has reached about 40,000 feet again.”
As of Saturday evening, the Evans Road Fire had grown to 31,423 acres in size. The fire is now 40% contained; however, 25 miles of containment lines still need to be constructed or improved. The fire was active throughout Saturday night and early Sunday morning. With temperatures exceeding 100 degrees and lower relative humidity values predicted for today, additional significant fire growth is anticipated. The fire is projected to spread farther east into the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and portions of the refuge are closed due to the fire.
This fire is very unpredictable, the terrain is difficult for getting equipment and men in and around, ample fuel, and shifting winds make it difficult to predict where this fire may go. There are still evacuations going on in this pretty remote part of the state and as of now I do not believe any homes have been reported lost.
We’ll continue to follow this story and keep these men and women who are fighting this wildfire in your prayers.
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