Evacuations continue Saturday from rapidly spreading NC and SC mountain wildfires
Three fires that merged to form the Black Cove Complex Fire have burned nearly 7,000 acres in Western North Carolina's Polk and Henderson counties, N.C. Forest Service rangers said Friday night.
The fires engulfed 22 structures, forced evacuations on 18 roads and required an injured firefighter to be airlifted to a hospital.
AmeriCorps NCCC, which sent a team of firefighters, called the Black Cove Complex Fire on Friday the 'highest priority fire in the U.S.'
About 450 firefighters from across the state and nation were on the scene Friday night, according to the N.C. Forest Service.
Concord Fire deployed a team that has worked all three of the Black Cove Complex fires.
And FEMA on Friday authorized federal money to reimburse costs to North Carolina to fight the massive Table Rock fire in Transylvania County.
The fire spread northeast from Pickens County, S.C., and has consumed 10,904 acres, according to an update Saturday by the S.C. Forestry Commission.
Another S.C. mountain wildfire, the Persimmon Ridge Fire, has consumed 2,000 acres in Greenville and Pickens counties, officials said.
One of the fires that formed the Black Cove Complex Fire has burned 3,410 acres and was 23% contained, Forest Service officials said in a noon update Saturday. The fire, named the Black Cove Fire, was about two miles northeast of Saluda, in the Green River Gorge.
Gastonia firefighters were among those who worked through the night late Friday and early Saturday to protect homes near Saluda from the fire.
'Fire behavior has continued to be intense, with rapid fire spread and areas of extreme burning conditions due to shifting winds and dry weather during the day,' according to a news release from the Forest Service on Friday night.
Overnight, the fire 'calmed down due to increasing humidity and cloud cover,' fire officials said Saturday. 'Crews patrolled and monitored fire lines throughout the night.'
A downed power line caused the fire, which was first reported on Wednesday, officials said.
The second fire, known as the Deep Woods Fire, spread to 3,797 acres and was 32% contained by Friday night. The fire was about five miles northwest of Columbus, on state-owned and private land in the Green River Gorge and the neighboring Holbert Cove community, according to the N.C. Forest Service.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. The fire also was first reported on Wednesday.
The third fire, called the Fish Hook Fire, covered 199 acres and was 95% contained, officials said. The fire was about five miles northwest of Mill Spring on private land near Lake Adger.
A downed power line also caused that fire, which was reported on Thursday, officials said.
A 1,300-acre fire in the Alarka community near Bryson City was only 10% contained, Swain County Emergency Management officials said on social media at 8:30 p.m. Friday.
The cause of the fire that started Tuesday remains under investigation, officials said. Evacuations were ordered for Long Creek Lane, Unahala Creek and Alarka Highlands.
Temperatures and wind increased in Swain County early Saturday ahead of possible rain, officials said. Gusts up to 21 mph were expected and highs near 70 degrees. The chance of showers stood at 40% this weekend.
'Dry windy conditions and rough, rocky terrain will make fire suppression efforts difficult until significant rain is received,' Swain County emergency officials said.
North Carolina is under a statewide burn ban. A state of emergency was declared Wednesday for 34 Western North Carolina counties.
To check wildfire activity across the state, use the North Carolina Forest Service wildfire public viewer at https://ncfspublic.firesponse.com/.
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Los Angeles Times
18-06-2025
- Los Angeles Times
California's 2025 wildfire season was already going to be dangerous. Trump has made it worse
As California continues to reel from the historic firestorm that decimated portions of Los Angeles in January, the state is now facing the prospect of an exceptionally active wildfire season fueled by hot, dry conditions. It may not be ready: Experts say sweeping changes at federal agencies that play key roles in California's wildfire preparation and response could make a challenging season even worse. The latest forecast from the National Interagency Fire Center calls for above-normal fire activity across much of California and the Northwest through September. The government outlook warns of 'significant fire potential' in Northern California, the Sierra Nevada and several of the state's coastal areas due largely to a pronounced warm and dry trend. The forecast arrives as the Trump administration is enacting budget cuts, layoffs, office closures and restructuring at the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump has said the changes will help eliminate federal waste and save Americans' tax dollars. However, these three agencies are critical components of California's wildfire response capabilities, from forecasting and forest management to firefighting and disaster relief. Weakening them at the start of fire season — and at a moment when human-caused climate change is driving larger and more destructive blazes — puts California at a dangerous disadvantage, multiple experts said. 'The level of anxiety is so extreme among people who understand the consequences of converging crises,' said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. The combination of a bone-dry winter, an early and rapid spring snowmelt, and a forecasted anomalously hot summer raises the risk of intense fire activity across the region, he said. When coupled with new federal policies that decrease the state's ability to foresee, prepare for and respond to wildfires, it could spell disaster. 'It isn't just NOAA, it isn't just the Forest Service, it isn't just FEMA,' Swain said. 'It's every single one of these agencies, departments and entities that would be helping us either preemptively prepare or emergently respond to wildfire events and other kinds of disasters — all of which are dysfunctional at exactly the same moment.' The U.S. Forest Service oversees more than half of the forestland in California and represents the largest federal firefighting entity. The Trump administration has called for a 63% budget cut at the agency and a reduction of as many as 10,000 employees, or roughly 30% of its workforce. Agency officials say firefighters are exempt from layoffs and buyouts. 'The Forest Service continues to ensure it has the strongest and most prepared wildland firefighting force in the world,' said Larry Moore, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, in an email. There are nearly 11,000 wildland firefighters on board for the season, including about 3,500 in the Pacific Southwest region that includes California, agency data show. However, the Forest Service's ranks also include scientists that study landscape and fire conditions, crews that help clear flammable vegetation through mechanical thinning and prescribed burns, and other employees that manage machinery, technology and operational necessities — categories that were not protected from the staff reductions. What's more, approximately 1,400 workers known as 'red card' employees were also among those who left or were fired this year. The red card holders are not full-time firefighters, but are certified to deploy to blazes and assist with firefighting operations and response. Officials are now scrambling to call them back. 'It takes resources and capacity to manage our forests, and right now this administration is choking off the agency,' said Josh Hicks, conservation campaigns director with the national nonprofit the Wilderness Society. 'There's not going to be the staff, whether it's the on-the-ground staff or staff that might be more behind the scenes, to address all the needs that our forests have.' The changes at the Forest Service aren't limited to staffing. President Trump has ordered the expansion of resource mining and oil and gas drilling in the nation's forests and public lands. In April, the administration opened 112.5 million acres of federal forestland to industrial logging in an effort to increase domestic timber supplies. The order includes all 18 of California national forests. Hicks said directing the agency to extract more resources from the landscape while simultaneously reducing its staff and budget will further hamper its ability to prepare for and respond to fires this year. 'I think we'll find out soon enough if … diverting and reprioritizing what the agency ought to be working on is going to be a major distraction,' he said. The president has also proposed a drastic restructuring that would transfer much of the Forest Service's wildfire personnel to a new department located within the Department of the Interior, according to his 2026 budget plan. The change would reallocate the Forest Service's firefighting budget to the new agency and fundamentally reorient its mission to one of extraction and recreation. 'We are getting back to the basics of managing our national forests for their intended purposes of producing timber, clean water, recreation, and other necessities for the American taxpayers,' agency head Tom Schultz said in a statement ahead of a budget review hearing with the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee last week. Schultz, a Trump appointee, is a former timber industry executive. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D–Ore.) said during the hearing he was concerned about the implications of such changes for fire season, noting that his state saw a record 1.93 million acres burn last year. 'What happens if those fires are all happening all at once? And what happens if [a] longer, hotter, drier summer produces more fires than last year?' Merkley said. 'Instead of investing more in wildfire prevention and firefighting, this budget slashes those investments.' FEMA has been plagued by similar upheaval in recent months, also losing about 30% of its workforce through an estimated 2,000 workers who were laid off or took buyouts. President Trump has called for eliminating the agency altogether as part of a larger strategy to shift disaster response responsibilities away from the federal government and onto the states. In a statement to The Times, FEMA officials said the agency is committed to ensuring Americans get the support they need in an emergency, but that 'disasters are best when they're managed at the state and local level.' Last month, FEMA's acting director, Cameron Hamilton, was ousted one day after testifying in Congress that he did not think it was in the best interest of the American people to dissolve the agency. He was replaced by David Richardson, who vowed in a recent staff meeting to 'achieve the president's intent.' As with the Forest Service, experts say the turmoil at FEMA could have considerable ramifications for California. Its Fire Management Assistance Grants are often the first federal lifeline during a fire and have in the past covered up to 75% of the state's costs for equipment, personnel and other immediate firefighting needs. After a fire, FEMA typically operates disaster recovery centers, provides public assistance funds, and helps coordinate infrastructure repair, debris removal, shelters and other forms of aid. That is now likely to change. 'The scope and the capacity of the agency has been very intentionally narrowed,' said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, an associate professor of practice at Columbia Climate School who specializes in national disaster preparedness. As a result, he said, federal disaster relief is only likely to become more rare in the months ahead. Still, Schlegelmilch said there has been broad bipartisan support for reforming FEMA, and that many experts agree that states should do more to prepare for disasters. But 'where we do need to see states spending more, we don't necessarily need to see the federal government spending less,' he said. Indeed, FEMA's programs are already seeing funding cuts and reduced capabilities across the country, including in Los Angeles, where the agency broke with tradition and declined to fund soil testing following the Palisades and Eaton fires earlier this year. The Trump administration also eliminated FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants, which help states prepare for disaster. Trump's proposed plan would slash an additional estimated $646 million from the agency's overall budget. States don't have much time to prepare for such a potentially rapid loss of federal support. It's not clear whether FEMA will even exist come wildfire season. Trump has said he would like to wind down FEMA after this year's hurricane season, which ends in November — just as California's fire season typically peaks. 'It's going to be a very, very rough road for many states under this new paradigm,' said Schlegelmilch. When it comes to California's increasing battle against wildfires, those new challenges begin well ahead of disaster response. The Trump administration has also targeted NOAA and its subsidiary, the National Weather Service, for cutbacks. NOAA provides the foundation for much of California's wildfire preparedness, as its forecasts and warnings are often the first indication of trouble ahead and a signal for government agencies to begin positioning resources. The president's recent directives have roiled NOAA, which is facing a potential budget cut of roughly $1.5 billion following recent layoffs of more than 1,000 employees, including many meteorologists and other scientists, and the gutting of research programs. Officials this year have already suspended the launch of weather balloons at several locations across the country. At least two NWS offices in California no longer have enough staff to operate overnight: Sacramento and Hanford, which together cover the Central Valley and the Sierra, among the state's most fire-prone regions. When asked whether the agency can assure the public that recent changes will not affect its ability to forecast fire conditions and alert the public to danger, NWS spokesperson Erica Grow Cei said only that officials are taking steps to refill roles at key locations through short-term temporary duty assignments and reassignments. 'Additionally, a targeted number of permanent, mission-critical field positions will soon be advertised under an exception to the department-wide hiring freeze,' she said. Swain, of the University of California, said the loss of personnel, expertise and redundancies at NOAA and the NWS put the state's residents and firefighters at a considerable disadvantage as fire season ramps up. While cracks may not show on an ordinary weather day, 'the problem is when there is an extreme event or a disaster or an emergency,' he said. 'That's where people are going to mess up and make mistakes — not on purpose, not due to lack of training or lack of professionalism, but because they're being asked to do 200 things simultaneously, and all of them are life-and-death critical.' Compounding all of these challenges is the fiery forecast for this summer and fall. The wet winters of 2022 and 2023 prompted new vegetation growth across California, which subsequently baked under recent dry conditions. The NIFC outlook notes that precipitation in Central and Southern California has been about 70% below average since October. All that dry brush will meet with a remarkably hot summer across California and the West, which could lead to explosive fires, Swain said. He is particularly concerned about the national picture between August and October, when there is an overlap between peak fire season and peak hurricane season. 'This year is ringing a lot of alarm bells, and would be ringing alarm bells even if we had fully functional, fully funded federal agencies,' Swain said. At the state level, officials say they are doing what they can to prepare for an active fire year. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has been steadily adding more personnel in recent years and now employs more than 12,500 people with a goal to increase staffing to 14,500 over the next few years, according to David Acuña, battalion chief of communications at the agency's headquarters in Sacramento. Acuña acknowledged that conditions are ripe for a dangerous summer and fall. 'It's a haystack of dry fuels that are just waiting to burn,' he said. However, when asked about changes at the federal level, he demurred. 'There's a lot yet to be known,' he said. 'We don't really know. What we do know, though, is that when there is a fire, if Cal Fire is called upon, we will be ready and able to respond immediately.' Indeed, Cal Fire isn't only adding staff but is also expanding its firefighting capabilities through partnerships with other nonfederal entities, he said. Among them is Earth Fire Alliance, a nonprofit coalition launching satellites that analyze the landscape and search the state for wildfire activity. Another project known as ALERT California, which is operated by Cal Fire and UC San Diego, uses artificial intelligence to scan more than 1,000 remote mountaintop cameras for the first signs of sparks. While such efforts may help reduce California's reliance on the federal government, they can't fully replace its assets yet. For example, Acuña said Cal Fire depends on red flag warnings and other data from the NWS to position crews, and it often fights side-by-side with firefighters from the Forest Service. 'We rely on our local partners, tribal partners, federal partners,' he said. 'Even as large as we are, we still can't do it alone.'
Hamilton Spectator
13-06-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
American weather presenters say coverage of wildfires on the Prairies has intensified
EDMONTON - Three American TV weather presenters say their viewers' appetite is soaring for information on the swaths of wildfire smoke drifting in from the Canadian Prairies. 'The smoke has really dominated our weather forecasting headlines,' says Jacob Morse, a meteorologist for KFYR-TV in Bismarck, N.D. Morse said North Dakota has been hazy all week due to smoke coming from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where fires have been raging for more than two weeks, forcing more than 30,000 people from their homes. 'We've been talking about it constantly. We're educating viewers on where the fires are and then why the smoke comes here (and the) communities impacted,' he said. Eric Snitil, chief meteorologist for WROC-TV in Rochester, N.Y., says a few years ago, his news network had two or three smoke graphics it projected on its green screens, mainly because of wildfires elsewhere in the United States. 'Now we couldn't be building these fast enough because of Canada,' Snitil said. 'It's forcing us meteorologists to not just look out for weather in our own backyard here in New York. I find myself now looking at data for Canada and what's the fire conditions looking like many thousands of miles away.' He said the appetite from viewers has grown because smoke affects such a large number of people at one time. Bill Kardas, a chief meteorologist of WKTV in Utica, N.Y., says weather presenters across the U.S. have been ramping up their coverage of Canadian wildfire smoke since 2023. As Canadians dealt with their worst wildfire season that year, he said his state turned apocalyptically orange from the smoke. Snitil said meteorologists in New York weren't prepared. 'Most people around here never experienced anything like the 2023 wildfire smoulder,' said Kardas, a weatherman of 20 years. 'There really wasn't a lot of knowledge as to what was generating this, why is this happening, is this normal, has this ever happened before.' This year, Kardas said his viewers began to notice smoke in the air last week as blazes on the Canadian Prairies intensified. It has prevented many Americans from leaving their homes, he said. 'We're 2,000 miles away and we're feeling the effects of this,' he said. 'I can't imagine how horrible it must be to be dealing with it in proximity.' Mike Flannigan is a professor in the University of Alberta's department of renewable resources and the director of the Western Partnership for Wildland Fire Science. He said there are two main reasons why Canadian smoke is making international headlines. First is that there is more smoke and wildfires to begin with, he said. This year's fire season — the second worst since the 2023 wildfire season — has seen wildfires consume 3.7 million hectares, six times the area of Prince Edward Island. 'And there's probably more (smoke) than that because our fires today are burning more intensely and more deeply,' Flannigan said. Smoke from the flames this year has also crossed oceans and even been detected in Europe. He said people are paying attention to Canadian wildfires globally because they are more aware of the dangers of smoke as science has evolved. 'I'm a fire guy. We talk about good fire and bad fire. There's no such thing as good smoke. It's bad, bad, bad. And it's becoming more frequent,' Flannigan said. 'It affects IQ, it affects fetus development and of course, lungs. It's full of thousands of chemicals.' He said he hopes the global spread of Canadian wildfire smoke encourages more people to think about human-caused climate change. 'We can prevent some of these wildfires through fire bans, forest closures, education,' Flannigan said. 'If (the Earth continues) to warm, we're going to have longer fire seasons, carry more lightning and drier fields which promote fires.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
NM Highway 15 closed due to 300-acre wildfire near Silver City
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — New Mexico Highway 15 is closed to public traffic after a wildfire grew to 300 acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service on Thursday, June 12. According to the news release by the Forest Service, the Trout Fire was originally estimated at 26 acres and located near Forest Road 876, north of the Sheep Corral area in the Gila National Forest. The fire has now grown eastward, crossing over New Mexico Highway 15, and has grown to an estimated 300 acres. Additionally, the Forest Service reported another 8.5-acre wildfire, the Meadow Fire, near the Meadow Creek area, roughly 15 miles north of Silver City. An engine crew established a fireline, and crews are working to contain the fire. As of result of the growing Trout Fire, Highway 15 and 35 intersection south of the Ben Lilly Memorial has been closed to public traffic, the Forest Service said. The Forest Service said the cause of the fires is under investigation. The public is being asked to stay away from the fire area for their safety due to 'heavy firefighter traffic, the presence of uncontained wildfires and the dry, volatile conditions,' the Forest Service said. The Gila Las Cruces Type 3 Incident Command Team is taking command of the Trout Fire and will transition into a Type 2 incident command organization at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 13, according to the Forest Service. Responding resources to the Trout Fire include the Gila Hotshots, two Type 6 engine crews, one Type 3 engine crew, two 10-person fire suppression modules with support from two single-engine air tankers, one Type 1 and one Type 3 helicopter, and fixed wing air attack, the Forest Service said. Additionally, the Forest Service said three more hotshot crews and two dozers have been ordered. According to the Forest Service, an emergency alert was sent out by the Grant County Office of Emergency Management, placing most of the Mimbres Valley in 'set' mode. The Mimbres valley is from the Highway 15 and 35 intersection to the Wilderness Ranger District Office. Visitors are also advised to leave recreation sites along Highway 35, including Lake Roberts Recreation Area, Mesa Campground, Upper End Campground, Sapillo Campground trailheads, and dispersed campsites, the Forest Service said. Smoke is visible from Silver City, Highway 15, and the Mimbres Valley. And smoke can be expected to settle into low-lying areas, especially during overnight and early morning hours, the Forest Service said. The Forest Service said smoke monitors have been set up at Lake Roberts and the Wilderness District Office. Real-time smoke information can be seen at In addition, the Gila National Forest has put in a stage 2 fire restrictions in effect. To learn more about fire restriction information, you can visit its website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
