As most areas in the western states are winding down or have already closed out their wildfire season, the fall fire season in the South is appearing on the radar as leaves fall off the trees and frost kills the herbaceous vegetation, providing additional fuel.
The Southern Geographic Area’s daily report includes nine fires over the last couple of weeks that exceeded 100 acres.
The Nantahala National Forest in western North Carolina has five active blazes that have burned 40, 100, 33, 11, and 374 acres. Elevated fire activity on the Forest has prompted fire management officials to transition from district management to a Type 3 organization. Effective Sunday, this enables more effective management of several fires simultaneously under the umbrella of one incident commander.
Additional resources have arrived to assist in suppressing ongoing fires as well as any new starts. Crews from California, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida and Oregon have joined forces with local firefighters.
None of these fires show up on InciWeb.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Perry.
Also, 2 Heavy Air Tankers, 1 Bravo Unit, 1 Air Attack, (Based out of CHA) 3 Type 1 Helicopters, 1 Type 2 Helicopter with a 14 person helitack crew, and a bunch of Type 3 Helicopters.