ROCKINGHAM — A controlled burn got out of control Wednesday in the southwestern area of Richmond County.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission was conducting a prescribed burn at the Diggs Tract along the Pee Dee River about 10 miles south of Rockingham when the fire jumped a containment line, according to Brandon Van Buren, county ranger with the N.C. Forest Service.
Van Buren said the rough terrain of the river hills made it difficult to control the fire with the equipment on site, so the NCFS was called in.
A helicopter gave assistance from the air, dropping water on the fire and Van Buren said crews were able to get “it wrapped up” before it reached nearby homes.
The fire burned around 40 acres, according to Van Buren.
The N.C. Wildfire Public Viewer shows several other recent fires in Richmond County, including one south of Hamlet that burned 30 acres.
Click here to read about that fire on Ghio Road.
The other reported fires include:
- 1/10 of an acre burned on Stokes Road, south of Rockingham
- ¼ of an acre on Standridge Place, north of Hamlet
- ¼ of an acre on Walter Kelly Drive, northwest of Rockingham
- 1/10 of an acre on Tilley Street, Hoffman
The fire on Walter Kelly Drive was listed as being 0% contained at the time of this writing.
Low relative humidity earlier this week had Richmond County, and most of North Carolina, under an increased fire risk, according to the National Weather Service.
According to the N.C. Forest Service, there were three in District 3 that burned 40.2 acres on March 18. District 3 also includes Anson, Chatham, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Scotland and Stanly counties.
NCFS also reports 36 wildfires burned 114.9 acres on private and state-owned land across the state that day. That information had not been updated as of 11:42 a.m. March 21.
As of March 18, 409 fires had burned 895 acres in the state, with more than 100 acres burned on each March 12, 14, 15 and 18.
On Wednesday, the RO published a list of fire safety tips from Van Buren. Click here to read those tips.
