Almond – A cloud of mystery still lingers over a pair of wildfires that burned more than 400 acres around Fontana Lake last week.
Officials first discovered the two blazes late April 14 in both the Wolf Creek and Tsali areas of southeastern Graham County. Both fires were burning on U.S. Forest Service land, and the largest was 100 percent contained by Monday.
The smaller fire, located in the Left Loop area of the Tsali Mountain Bike trail complex, only burned 20 acres and was confirmed to be started by lightning strikes that smoldered from storms on Easter Sunday.
However, it was the Flint Gap fire off Meeting House Mountain Road in Wolf Creek that has left officials suspicious. At press time Wednesday, the cause of the Flint Gap fire had not been confirmed, but 387 acres of land had been damaged.
Crews from both the U.S. and N.C. Forest Services worked overnight and into April 15 to construct containment lines, and both a dozer and a scout plane were used in the effort to contain the blaze. A combination of dry, windy conditions and burn-out operations – which saw firefighters use back burns to remove the unburnt fuels between the fire and the containment lines – caused more acreage to be damaged.
Weekend rainfall helped combat the remaining fire.
Though the N.C. Forest Service recently lifted a 32-county burn ban, fire restrictions are in place for both the Nantahala and Pisgah National forests until Saturday, Aug. 8.
Marshall McClung also contributed to this story.