Firefighters in North Carolina’s Pilot Mountain State Park hope to have an escaped prescribed fire 90 percent contained by the end of the day on Monday. On Thursday the burn boss and New River State Park Superintendent Joseph Shimel supervised the ignition of the fire intending to burn 180 acres, but in the afternoon a dead tree near the fireline torched, sending burning embers into steep terrain outside the project’s perimeter, eventually blackening about 800 acres over the weekend.
According to the Winston-Salem Journal, Charlie Peek, public information officer for the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation said the escaped fire:
…pretty much illustrated why we need prescribed burns, because any time fire hits this area — leaf litter, debris and brush — it’s much more difficult to control, and things can get out of hand much more quickly.
Previously the largest prescribed fire in the Park had been 35 acres. Small burns had been conducted in 2004 and 2009.
