Fire Near Erwin

[Bigglesworth]

Sorry if this has already been posted, and I don't know if this will even help anyone. A controlled burn approaching Erwin (from South, going Northbound) was NOT under control at all times today and was in fact hopping on to the trail, etc. It was pretty sketchy...don't know the current status, but be aware if you're headed that way. 911/Forest Service had no clue burning was still "going on".

[Tennessee Viking]

I just made it back from Big Bald. Before heading up, hikers at Johnnys told me that there was a reroute in works leading down to the area forest roads on No Business. The reroute leads down forest road to Unaka Springs, just up the road from Johnnys.

You could see strong smoke from Johnnys and High Rocks on No Business. And there were high wind gusts at Big Bald and Bald Mtn Shelter Thursday night.

Unaka Mountain Rescue gave me a ride back to Johnnys from Spivey Gap, he heard there was a burn, but didn't know the extent of it.

I find it a 'dah dah dah' when the forest service decides to do a burn at the beginning of the hiker crowd near the trail.

[dmb658]

Wow, i had seen the signs for the controled burns when i had passed through, but i never heard that it had gotten out of control. I hope no one got hurt

Pusher

[error]

I came through the burned section of the A.T. yesterday and there was damage for several miles. And there's still a charred smell in the air. The worst part was that it seems to have eroded away a few parts of the Trail and I almost slipped off in a few places. I did see a maintainer out cutting down some of the deadfall.

[Marta]

We hiked through this section this weekend. What a fire! Miles of burned area.

[Slo-go'en]

When I went through there on May 5th, it was on fire. In fact, we scampered past a section of hill which was actively burning 5 feet from us. Scarry.

Spent most of the evening at No Buisness Knob sheter watching the fire line creep up the hill towards us. We were glad to be in a cider block shelter with a tin roof! There were still a lot of unburnt dry leaves around the shelter, so I kicked as much of them as I could away from the shelter, just in case. Thankfully most of the fire went out before it came too close, but could see hot spots down the hill from the shelter all night and heard a few trees crash down.

There were no signs to warn us of smoke/fire danger or any reroute. Apparently, they did the "controlled burn" a few days earlier and thought it was out. We found out it wasn't! We passed quite a few controlled burn areas in NC this spring. At least 3 or 4.

[Tennessee Viking]

Forest Service at first said it was another controlled burn, but a month later they finally admitted it was out of control.

Forest Service was actually supposed to have someone camped up at the shelter during the burn. But I was told by hikers there wasnt anyone. No signs at Spivey Gap to warn hikers of it. They only had a small reroute open to the forest roads below for a couple days. A couple hikers told me that they had to jump the fire in a couple spots where it hit trail.

I was hiking with the crowd off of Big Bald, and they told me at Johnnys that I was their only bit of info of the fire until face to face with it.

[Nearly Normal]

Call smoky the bear.
We can't have a controlled burn!
We would rather the forrest mast pile up a couple of feet so when it does catch fire it is a wildfire that destroys the whole of the woods.

Check out Big Sur. They don't practice controlled burns because it's not PC.

I guess up until now they "felt good" about it.

Forrestry could spend about a tenth of what they do with a fire plan than what they spend fighting fire. Peoples property would be secure too.
The timber and wildlife would benefit greatly.