Fire danger remains high in eastern North Carolina on Tuesday.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City said the combination of persistent dry conditions, increasing winds, and multiple ongoing fires will keep the threat elevated.
North Carolina Forest Service officials say people should never burn on dry, windy days. They also the only thing that can legally be burned is natural vegetation, and burning trash is against the law.
Preliminary reports from the forest service show that 231 wildfires burned more than 1,300 acres on private and state-owned land on Saturday. The U.S. Forest Service reported that it was battling flames over the weekend in all four North Carolina national forests.
During this dry period, a controlled burn that spread destroyed two outbuildings in Jones County Monday afternoon. County Fire Marshal Aaron Kite says someone was burning a ditch just west of Trenton when the fire got away from him.
Firefighters from Trenton and Phillips Crossroads kept the fire from several nearby mobile homes, but Kite said several acres were burned. He’s asking everyone not to burn until the fire danger threat eases.
Also on Monday, high winds contributed to the spread of a large wildfire near Saluda – about 45 minutes south of Asheville. Polk County Fire Marshall Bobby Arledge says high winds contributed to the spread of the fire between Saluda and Tryon. Now that the weather’s changed, he’s hopeful about putting it out.
“ We've got the rain projected coming in, you know, Tuesday night, Wednesday," Arledge said, "We hope that really pretty much puts everything out that's not contained right now. ”
The winds over the weekend knocked down a powerline – which sparked the blaze that is now almost 500 acres. Arledge says that trees downed by Hurricane Helene are fueling the wildfire – and changing how crews are fighting it.
“There's just so much blow down trees and stuff and debris from all from Helene," he said. "So it's really, it's really caused a lot of problems for us.”
Crews are using a technique called “back burning.” That's essentially burning all the downed trees ahead of the fire to help firefighters get ahead of the flames and control them.
About 40 people voluntarily evacuated their homes in the area because of the fire.