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Crews battle a wildfire fire between Maysville and Piney Green Thursday afternoon

PRE News & Ideas | By Annette Weston,
Ryan Shaffer
Published March 22, 2024 at 5:22 AM EDT
A fire grayed the skies between Maysville and Piney Green just outside of Jacksonville Thursday afternoon. U.S. Highway 17 was hazy throughout much of Jones County and into Jacksonville.
Annette Weston-Riggs
/
Public Radio East
A fire grayed the skies between Maysville and Piney Green just outside of Jacksonville Thursday afternoon. U.S. Highway 17 was hazy throughout a portion of Jones County and into Jacksonville.

A fire grayed the skies between Maysville and Piney Green just outside of Jacksonville Thursday.

Onlsow County Fire Rescue Chief Adam Ketchum said they were working Thursday afternoon to determine how many acres were burning.

Customers at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Maysville, where it was smoky in the parking lot and light ash was falling, remarked that the recent pollen cloud was bad enough but the smoke made the air feel even thicker.

U.S. Highway 17 was hazy throughout a portion of Jones County and into Jacksonville.

Volunteer crews from Pumpkin Center and Piney Green, as well as the State Forestry Service, were working to contain and put out the fire.
Annette Weston
Annette is an award-winning journalist based in Eastern North Carolina. Her career includes professional stops across the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and Southeast, recently culminating in a 2026 Region 8 Edward R. Murrow Award for Small Market Radio Best News Series for her work on the Camp Lejeune Justice Act Series. Guided by a passion for human-interest storytelling, she focuses on narratives that touch hearts and connect communities. A mother of four and grandmother of two, Annette enjoys reading and creating epic Halloween costumes in her spare time. If you have a story idea to share, please reach out by email to westona@cravencc.edu.
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Ryan Shaffer
Ryan is an Arkansas native and podcast junkie. He was first introduced to public radio during an internship with his hometown NPR station, KUAF. Ryan is a graduate of Tufts University in Somerville, Mass., where he studied political science and led the Tufts Daily, the nation’s smallest independent daily college newspaper. In his spare time, Ryan likes to embroider, attend musicals, and spend time with his fiancée.
See stories by Ryan Shaffer