Communities scramble to flee as explosive wildfires torch over 10 square miles: 'One more thing that they're having to deal with'

Fires that burned almost 10 square miles in late March across two counties of western North Carolina forced officials to issue mandatory evacuation orders. Tinder-dry conditions and fuel provided by leftover debris from Hurricane Helene set the stage for a voracious spring wildfire season in the Carolinas, the Associated Press reported.

What's happening?

Even after a statewide burn ban that had been in effect for nearly two weeks in late March was lifted, wildfires continued to rage across North Carolina. As April began, there were at least eight wildfires burning across North Carolina, the largest of which burned nearly four thousand acres. South Carolina also started April with eight active wildfires. The Table Rock Fire, the state's largest at the time, had charred nearly 13,000 acres.

Residents of two harder-hit counties in western North Carolina, Polk and Henderson, were under evacuation orders and urged to move to an emergency shelter.

"A lot of the damage and the blowdown, the downed trees from Hurricane Helene are contributing to the difficulties that our firefighters are facing trying to contain this fire and so that has just been kind of one ongoing crisis from September all through into the spring for a lot of these residents," North Carolina Forest Service spokesperson Bo Dossett told the AP. "This is one more thing that they're having to deal with on top of what they experienced back in the fall."

Recent rains have helped firefighters get many of the fires under control over the last week, and assisting firefighters from out of state have begun traveling home, but not all fires are completely contained yet and there is still much recovery work to do even in the areas that are out of the woods. 

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Why are wildfires in the Carolinas important?

Several rapid attribution studies have shown Hurricane Helene was supercharged by the overheating of the planet. Scientists with World Weather Attribution concluded that our warming world was a "key driver of catastrophic impacts of Hurricane Helene that devastated both coastal and inland communities."

The debris left in the storm's wake dried up in the unusually warm and dry period that followed. The period of October through February was the 31st-warmest and fourth-driest on record for North Carolina, and the 26th-warmest and fourth-driest for South Carolina.

The last U.S. Drought Monitor report posted in March revealed that 61% of North Carolina and nearly 60% of South Carolina were enduring a moderate drought, level one out of four.

"Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States during the last two decades," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Report.

What's being done about the rising risk of wildfires?

Reducing the amount of heat-trapping gases released into Earth's atmosphere by transitioning from dirty energy to renewable energy sources will help cool our planet. We can all help curb harmful carbon pollution by doing things like installing a heat pump, switching to an induction stove, or signing up for community solar power — which can seem small, but once added up across even a million people, make a big difference.

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