Fighting Fire With Fire, Crews Head Off Blaze in N. Carolina

Firefighters ignited thousands of acres to block the path of a week-old forest fire in southeastern North Carolina on Sunday. Their action arrested the progress of the blaze, which has charred 70,000 acres and forced 5,000 people to flee their homes.

“We have broken the head and we hope to have it contained by tomorrow,” said Tommy Thompson of the state Division of Forest Resources. He said that “things look real good” on U.S. 17 and North Carolina 210. Parts of both highways have been closed because of the fire.

The backfire scorched at least 5,000 acres before it met with the larger blaze and left it nothing to feed its northwesterly progress.

“If we had not (set the backfire) we’d probably have a 10,000-acre fire out of control,” Thompson said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that it would have crossed the Cape Fear River and homes would have been lost.”

Fire Hemmed In

Fire lines were holding Sunday along the southwest, south and southeast sides of the blaze, said Chrystal Stowe of the state’s Crime Control and Public Safety Department.

Officials called other states to find tractors that could be used to navigate the swampy soil of Pender County, Stowe said.

Becky Strickland was among residents fleeing homes on the east side of U.S. 17 on Sunday, taking her two children, two dogs and a bird to her mother’s house.

“I mean, my house is full of smoke,” she said. “My eyes were burning.”

Strickland said she wasn’t concerned about her house burning because her husband burned the perimeter around the building.

Officials said Sunday that a hunting cabin valued at $3,000 and an outbuilding, both unoccupied, were the only structures lost to the fire. Stowe said that about 30 people, most of whom are firefighters, had been treated for smoke inhalation, cuts and bruises.

Officials estimated that it has cost nearly $150,000 to fight the fire.

Massive Effort

The fire crews, not including U.S. Forest Service personnel, numbered about 525, said Joe Dean, secretary of crime control and public safety. He said that 110 pieces of equipment were in use and that more than 1 million pounds of fire retardant had been dumped from aircraft since last Monday.

The fire started about eight miles north of Hampstead on May 5. It marched northward, toward Onslow County, then turned west, parallel to North Carolina 50, then back south into Pender County.