Officials remind public of fire danger this fall

Vibrant colors. Windows-down days. Football. There’s just something romantic about fall in the Carolinas. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone missing the oppressive summer humidity, but the drier weather autumn brings often comes at a cost: wildfires.

“Weather and fuels are probably our biggest drivers,” says Joshua Johnston with the NC Forest Service.

Joshua explains that what’s often fall’s biggest draw can also be its biggest drawback.

“With leaf change also comes leaf fall, which is an added fuel for fires to consume and spread.”

We see it all too often this time of year. Wildfires raging across beautiful landmarks like Pilot Mountain – and they’re almost always caused by human carelessness. That’s something Charlotte Fire Battalion Chief John Lipcsak is trying to cut back on this year.

“There’s no burning of yard debris or anything like that inside the city limits of Charlotte,” says Lipcsak.

And that also means once you’ve had fun jumping in your leaf pile, you should bag it up and leave it on the side of the road for collection.

“As dry as the leaves are, they could easily catch on fire and turn into a bigger problem,” Lipcsak adds.

Wounds from Helene are still very much open in western North Carolina, as well. Millions of downed trees from the storm may make fires worse this year.

“We’re now almost a year out since Helene,” Johnston says, “So a lot of those larger fuels are starting to cure, which means they’re adding to that fuel load.”

It’s something the Forest Service will have to account for going forward.

“This is going to be an issue for years and years to come, more than likely,” laments Johnston.