Six months ago, Southern Appalachia was devastated by Hurricane Helene.Now, after a dry spell and a windy March — the region faces wildfires that are feeding on the downed trees and vegetation that the hurricane knocked to the forest floor.The North Carolina Forest Service has declared one of them "the highest priority fire in the U.S."And due to climate change and population growth, the Carolinas must anticipate a future with more fire danger.Experts and first responders explain the current situation — and the way forward.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Why are wildfires becoming a concern in the Southeast?
If you mention wildfires, a lot of Americans will think of the western United States, areas like Southern California. But fire is becoming a bigger problem in the southeast as well.
I've definitely responded to more fires each year, it seems like. And I think that everyone who... is in professional firefighting in this region has noticed an increase.
That's Zach O'Donnell. He's the coordinator for the Southern Blue Ridge Prescribed Burn Association, based in western North Carolina. And this week, the State Forest Service declared one of the fires burning there as the highest priority fire in the U.S.
I've seen fire, flame lengths higher than I've ever seen this year as well, climbing through the rhododendron, 30, 40-foot flames, which for this region is pretty rare.
O'Donnell would rather not be helping fight active fires. Usually, he's educating landowners about fire prevention and leading controlled burns to reduce the risk of bigger fires. And right now, risk is high. Six months ago, Hurricane Helene ravaged mountainous forested areas like in Asheville, North Carolina.
All those downed trees, combined with a dry spring and high winds, it creates dangerous wildfire conditions.
Just the amount of debris down in the forest has made it extremely challenging to fight the fires in the traditional way. We're having to back up and really think large scale on a lot of these and know our topography and take our time and make sure we're not putting our firefighters in harm's way.
Jeremy Knighton is assistant fire chief in Asheville. He explained there are multiple wildfires burning across thousands of acres in a region which, again, six months ago saw those devastating floods.
you know, the communities around us have suffered tremendous loss already. And now these fires on top of that, and we know we've lost structures, you know, in these surrounding counties. And we're just, really on edge.
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Chapter 2: Who is responding to the wildfire increase in Southern Appalachia?
Consider this. Wildfires are growing more common in southern Appalachia. How will the region adapt to the future? Coming up, we will hear the answer to that from a landscape ecologist and fire expert. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow.
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It's Consider This from NPR. Wildfires are not new to the Carolinas, but the severity and frequency of those blazes, that is concerning to experts. For the past 25 years, Rob Scheller has studied fires. He is a professor of landscape ecology at North Carolina State University. I asked him what is the best way to describe what's going on right now in the southeast.
The fire risk is... elevated and it is severe. We do need to be taking precautions. This is a combination, of course, of dry spring, which is not unusual for the area. But it is a dry spring in combination with elevated fuel loads over a wide area due to Hurricane Helene. Hurricane Helene damaged over 800,000 acres of forest.
And so just think about a lot of tree mortality, limbs falling and so on. And so that all lands on a forest floor. And once it gets dried out, this is fantastic fuel for fire.
Is it fair to say then that the massive population growth that you've seen throughout so much of the Southeast is a big factor here? I mean, I think one example, Greenville, South Carolina, this is one of the communities near one of these fires, gained something like six new households every week between 2000 and 2020. This is just massive population growth in this region.
How does that affect all of this?
Yeah, the expansion of the wildland urban interface is a huge factor when we think about fire risk. And it is expanding rapidly across the southeast. And so more people, there's more opportunities for fires to negatively impact, of course, homes and lives. It's also more opportunities for people to accidentally start fires. And so that's more people living near natural vegetation,
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Chapter 3: What challenges do first responders face in fighting wildfires?
having barbecues, maybe doing some burning of yard waste and so on. So it's a two way risk of two people and people starting fires as well.
What is the best way to frame it from your perspective on the question? I'm sure you've gotten a lot of has climate change made made this risk worse?
Climate change has made the risk worse. And part of that is just rising temperatures by themselves will allow fuels to dry out faster. The other factor is what we're seeing in the southeast is precipitation has become much more variable over time.
And so last year is a great example where we had a really wet spring followed by a dry summer and then a wet early fall and then a really dry later fall. And so that means that you have these flash droughts sprinkled throughout the season, which, again, allow fuels to dry out and increases fire risk.
So obviously, temperatures are going up. That's not changing anytime soon. No. More people are moving to the southeast. That doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.
Correct.
What to you are the biggest steps that can be taken to try and mitigate these risks?
Again, there's many sides to the risk story. So one thing you want to do is just Reduce the risk of fire spreading. And that requires reducing the amount of fuels on the ground. That means getting out there and doing some salvage logging, maybe doing some prescribed burning. However, that's going to be difficult to cross over 800,000 acres of rough terrain.
And so people also need to be reducing their own risk. And in that case, there's things you can do around vegetation management immediately around your house. making sure the vegetation is away from the house, making sure you don't have a wood pile near to or up against the house, trying to eliminate any wooden fences. People could also change the way they build new houses.
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