Horton Wildfire 85% Contained

BLOWING ROCK, NC– After seven days of fighting the Horton fire near Blowing Rock, firefighters say the rain brought much needed relief.

“It’s done really well on knocking down some of the heat on the interior and we been checking the line making sure everything staying within control lines,” said Francis Mazur, a firefighter from Northern California.

These crews are from Oregon, California and New Jersey, putting themselves in dangerous conditions to ensure the fire is out and stays out.

“We all line out in what we call a grid we all get a certain feet spacing apart and we stand in line and go in use our one glove on one glove off kinda use back of our hands above ground to check for hot spots.”

Using the thermal imaging camera shows a safe temperature in the 50’s Tuesday evening. Acres of forest are now charred debris but amazingly no injuries or homes lost in this fire.

“The firefighters did a fantastic job getting in there protecting structures back burning around them and they had some homeowners right there w them as they back burned,” said Shoshana Cooper of the Idaho Crisis Management Team.

Officials say they are keeping crews still on site until the entire area is checked and secured from reigniting.

“The things of concern with the rain is even though it’s a lot of rain at one point if there’s deep pockets there could still be heat in there if there was roots burning.”