There is plenty to worry about right now.
With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to grow, both in new cases and deaths across the country, it is obviously the number one topic of conversation around every dinner table and water cooler in America.
The effect of the virus on society is also putting strain on households. People have lost their jobs, their children’s education has been impacted and even their ability to socialize with friends and family has been restricted.
In short, everyone has enough stress.
Perhaps that is what made the news from the past weekend that a pair of wildfires were burning in Western North Carolina, including one in Macon County, so disconcerting.
Anyone who lived, worked or visited Western North Carolina in the fall of 2016 remembers that havoc that wildfires played on the area. Nearly 78,000 acres of forest burned across the region and several additional fires raged in Eastern Tennessee and Northern Georgia.
People lost their homes, their businesses and even their lives during the wildfires. Until the recent coronavirus outbreak, the 2016 wildfire season was arguably the most memorable news event of the decade.
On Friday, the North Carolina Forest Service issued a burning ban for all of Western North Carolina. Macon County, of course, is included in that ban. All burning permits are revoked and no new burning permits will be issued until the ban is rescinded.
That means no campfires, no burning cardboard or other household trash and perhaps most importantly, no burning yard debris or brush. Both of the wildfires over the weekend, which burned roughly 95 acres combined, began on private property. Investigators are working to determine their origin.
Local firefighters, law enforcement personnel and first responders are working hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Don’t add any more to their plate by starting a wildfire. Obey the burning ban and wait for further instruction.
There’s already enough to worry about.