Wildfire burns 5,400 acres burn in mountains

Mountain blaze largely controlled

LINVILLE -- While the national media have focused on large wildfires in Utah and California, a fire in Burke County has been burning for a month and has slowly consumed 5,400 acres.

The blaze, now almost fully contained, was helped along by low humidity and dry conditions, Forest Service officials said.

The fire, covering 8.4 square miles, has burned considerably less land and has not damaged personal property. The Western blazes, by contrast, have consumed homes, lives and, in some cases, six times as much acreage. But the Burke County fire has been difficult to extinguish, Forest Service officials said, because the terrain is steep and rugged and because fire smoldered beneath layers of dry leaves and timber.

"You can't get good footing, you don't have a good escape route, you have thick brush that you can't walk through," said John Strom, a U.S. Forest Service ranger from Arkansas.

Strom spent 18 days in the Pisgah National Forest, where the blaze began June 8, and said the mulch covering the ground allowed smoke and heat to fester inches below the surface.

"This is pretty dang thick stuff, just a mass of organic matter," Strom said.

The fire consumed 1,900 acres in mid-June, and firefighters thought they had nearly contained it. But 10 days later, it flared up and, in a week, more than doubled to 4,517 acres, officials said.

More than 200 crew members from across the country were sent to the mountain. They dug dirt canals to stop flames from jumping onto unburned land, chopped at charred tree trunks to make sure fire wasn't smoldering inside and dropped water from helicopters onto the forest.

Rainfall in the area generally missed the fire and only dampened the dry ground, offering firefighters little help.

Eric Magraner, 20, traveled from Colburn, Va., with a 15-member crew to "mop up" the area.

The 15-hour days are draining, he said, but making sure the flames don't spread and destroy homes is rewarding.

"People come up to you and say, 'God bless you. Thanks for what you're doing,' " he said. "That feels good."

About 2,000 acres were burned by fires set by crews to contain the fire and control its path.

By late Tuesday, crews had the fire 95 percent contained, said Dennis Wahlers, a Forest Service spokesman. He said they hoped to fully contain it by the weekend.