Copyright 2006 The News and Observer
Dry, gusty winds from the mountains to the coast trigger year’s first statewide warning
By JIM NESBITT
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Gust-driven wildfires flared across North Carolina on Wednesday under the year’s first statewide Red Flag Warning, continuing a fast-paced 2006 spring season that already has tallied almost 600 more rogue blazes than this time last year.
So far, federal forecasters and state forestry officials have raised the wildfire alert six times for different portions of North Carolina since January, signaling the combustible combination of high winds, low humidity and tinder-dry forest fuel that poses the highest wildfire threat.
Statewide, forestry officials said 57 wildfires torched almost 91 acres Wednesday. That raised the year’s total to 2,139 fires and 6,262 acres, a blistering pace for North Carolina’s busiest wildfire season, which runs from March to May. Across the Triangle and surrounding counties, 14 wildfires burned more than 18 acres Wednesday, state forestry officials said.
It could have been far worse, state foresters said. With Wednesday’s winds gusting above 35 mph, they were braced for an even bigger outbreak of harder-to-control blazes.
“We’re unusually quiet today,” said John Mewborn, district ranger for the state Division of Forest Resources jurisdiction that includes Johnston and Harnett counties. “But the weather conditions are very, very extreme right now. To put it in layman’s terms, if it gets started in the right place, we’re in trouble.”
During rush hour Wednesday, a section of Glenwood Avenue north of Pinecrest Drive in Raleigh was temporarily closed while firefighters fought a blaze that overtook several acres near an abandoned house, said Alan Walters, battalion chief for the Raleigh Fire Department.
The unpredictable threat of windy conditions was illustrated by a Tuesday night fire that started in a workshop south of Clayton. The gust-driven blaze quickly spread to an abandoned tobacco barn and a single-wide mobile home before leaping into nearby groves of oak and pecan trees.
All three buildings and two tractors were destroyed after being engulfed within 15 minutes, said Clayton Fire Chief Lee Barbee.
In Durham County, Fire Marshal Jeffrey Batten instituted a burning ban Wednesday morning after 20 brush fires broke out the previous two days, including one that ripped through five wooded acres near the Wake County line.
That fire began Tuesday when someone burned trash and left it unattended, Batten said. Flames from burning trash and debris are the most common cause of wildfires, state forestry officials say.
“It’s dry conditions, no rain, high winds and people wanting to go outside and burn without using any common sense,” Batten said.
The Durham ban will remain in place until the county gets substantial rain, he said.
But prospects for much-need precipitation continue to be slim, said Ron Humble, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Raleigh office.
The Triangle is already in droughtlike conditions, with a rainfall deficit this year of 5.5 inches below normal.
“We’re moving, unfortunately, into our dry time,” Humble said.
Six wildfire alerts this early in the spring season underscore the moderate drought conditions parching the Triangle, the Triad and other parts of central North Carolina, said Scott Sharp, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Raleigh office.
During a normal rainfall year, a Red Flag Warning might be raised once or twice, Sharp said. During other dry years, the wildfire banner might fly a half-dozen times.
Winds were expected to be calmer in the Triangle today, but the next chance for significant rainfall isn’t expected until Monday or Tuesday, Humble said.