Even though it is weeks until the usual start of the autumn fire season – and rain has fallen steadily – local crews were dispatched to a pair of separate outbreaks during the last week.
Graham County Fire and Rescue – including a Meadow Branch unit – responded to a small brush fire around 1:20 p.m., Aug. 21.
The fire was near the Deals Gap dumpsters in Swain County, where someone had set fire to a pile of brush near the edge of the woods and left it unattended.
The fire was brought under control around 2 p.m., after burning less than an acre.
Smoke was reported by passengers to Graham County dispatch later in the afternoon, which led to units responding once more as a precautionary measure.
Firefighters with Stecoah Fire and Rescue and N.C. Forest Service also responded to a brush fire at Mamie’s Way in the Tobacco Branch section of Graham County just before 2 p.m. Monday. A landowner was burning debris about 100 feet from a residence when the fire escaped into a nearby wooded area.
The fire was contained in about an hour after burning less than one acre.
No structures were damaged and no one was injured.
Publisher/editor Kevin Hensley also contributed to this report.