This is a developing story and will be updated.
Friday, 2/23 The wildfire is 100% contained at 54 acres, according to Trent Duncan, district forester with the NC Forest Service. Duncan says firefighters were able to protect the 13 homes that were threatened.
Thursday, 2/22 Firefighting crews are making progress in containing a wildfire in Madison County that has scorched close to 60 acres and threatened a dozen homes and structures.
Jeremy Graves, the assistant Madison County ranger with the N.C. Forest Service said the fire, which started Tuesday off East Fork Road, was 70% contained.
Graves said members of the Mars Hill Fire Department and the BRIDGE young offenders program were among the two dozen firefighters on the scene.
So far, no word on what ignited the blaze, but Graves was optimistic that their progress in putting it out would continue - and benefit from the rainfall expected Thursday evening.
While only a handful of WNC counties - Cherokee, Clay and Macon – are considered “abnormally dry” by the U.S. Drought Monitor, the state’s daily fire danger map shows the entire region is in the yellow “high risk” category.
Last fall’s wildfire season coincided with a prolonged dry spell in the region, and reports of fires started pouring in, including the Collett Ridge wildfire in the Nantahala National Forest in Cherokee County. When it was finally extinguished a month later, more than 5,000 acres had burned.
