Kevin Hensley
The last two weeks of our local news cycle has been dominated by the Haoe Lead Fire, which was ignited by a lightning strike inside the dense wilderness of the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest on April 12.
Our historical columnist Marshall McClung has penned a letter that you find elsewhere on this page and kept tabs daily on the ever-changing conditions. Retired from the U.S. Forest Service and active on countless rescue missions, McClung knows a thing or two about a thing or two – especially when it comes to detailing the ins and outs of a wildfire.
It's not just his letter that heaps praise on local firefighters, however: two others that were nearly affected by a different fire also wanted to express their gratitude to those who helped extinguish the flames before structures on their respective properties were consumed.
Our local, state and national firefighters deserve more praise than we can often afford them inside these pages. Bear in mind, we are chocked full of five, local volunteer fire departments: Graham County, Meadow Branch, Santeetlah, Snowbird and Stecoah. These folks are called on at any given time – day or night – and more often than not, contend with flames that were started due to human error. They are your friends, neighbors and fellow worshippers on Sunday morning.
They fight the fires, mind you, for the low salary of $0 per hour.
Firefighters have to put themselves in danger each time someone takes a notion to burn brush, for example – even when the county is under a burn ban, oddly enough – but that effort is not lost on those who watch the flames dwindle to smoke and are able to experience relief from imminent disaster.
On behalf of everyone here at The Graham Star, I want to personally commend all of the fire and rescue personnel for their efforts over the last few weeks.
At Wednesday’s press deadline, the Haoe Lead Fire has called in 179 total personnel from 4-5 states and all indications are that by the end of the week, the combination of rain and daily efforts to contain the blaze will allow most of them to return home.
For the local firefighters who are in the trenches with us – week in and week out – thank you for risking your life each time you run toward an unpredictable flame.
We know that you do it because you love your community – and that is a fact that no amount of flames can extinguish.
Kevin Hensley is the publisher/editor of The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, editor@grahamstar.com; phone, 828-479-3383; or on X, @KevinHensleyCNI.