As drought conditions continue to worsen across the region, the North Carolina Forest Service, Macon County, and the Town of Highlands have taken steps to stop citizens from burning outdoors.
On Sunday the NCFS issued a burning ban for all forest land and canceled all burning permits for Burke, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Graham, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, McDowell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain and Transylvania counties effective 5 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 5, until further notice.
“Several counties in Western North Carolina are currently in a severe drought, and we are seeing wildfire activity increase due to dry conditions. Because dry conditions are expected to continue this burn ban is necessary to reduce the risk of fires starting and spreading quickly. Our top priority is always to protect lives, property and forestland across the state,” said NC Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “Even though not all areas of the North Carolina fall under the burn ban, we do encourage extreme caution with any burning as conditions are dry in many areas of the state. We will continue to assess conditions in the coming weeks to determine if we need to expand the burn ban.”
The Town of Highlands followed suit by issuing its own burning ban for all property inside town limits on Monday morning. Mayor Patrick Taylor took matters one step further and issued a state of emergency related to increased fire danger. The state of emergency will remain in place until conditions improve enough for outdoor burning to resume.
“It is so dry, and we have already implemented ‘Phase II’ water restrictions, so putting a burning ban in place is the right decision,” Taylor said. “That includes the burning of any leaf debris, the use of outdoor fire pits, and any other outdoor burning.”
As of Tuesday, Highlands has received zero measured rainfall in November. The previous month of October was one of the driest on record, with Highlands seeing just 1.38 inches of rainfall, more than 5 inches below average. For the year, Highlands has seen 51.58 inches of rain, more than 22 inches below average.
On Monday night, Macon County issued a burn ban of its own for properties outside of Highlands town limits. Fire marshal Jimmy Teem issued the ban which prohibits any outdoor burning within 100 feet of a structure.
“Due to current atmospheric conditions and local circumstances, pursuant to NC Fire Code, open burning within 100 feet of a dwelling – including burning leaves, branches, and other plant material are prohibited,” Teem said in a written statement. “The ban becomes effective at 2 p.m. on Nov. 6 and will remain in effect until further notice.”
The burning bans come as three major wildfires are being tended to by fire crews in Jackson, Henderson, and Cherokee counties. Those fires have burned more than 3,000 acres and created so much smoke than an air quality advisory is in effect until further notice.