ROCKINGHAM — A wildfire in the southern end of the county burned about 60 acres of privately owned land Tuesday, according to the N.C. Forest Service.
County Ranger Jack Franklin said a call came in around 2 p.m. in reference to a woods fire off Loch Haven Road. The East Rockingham Fire Department also responded.
Franklin said crews fought the blaze — and the winds fueling it — for around three hours.
Air support had been called, but flight crews were grounded due to incoming storms, according to Franklin.
The fire was contained around 5:30 p.m. and heavy rains helped extinguish it, he said.
Franklin said a preliminary investigation shows the fire may have been ignited by a pile of pine debris that had been burned as long as a week ago.
There was another, larger, fire in the Sandhills Game Lands of neighboring Scotland County, Franklin added.
According to the N.C. Forest Service website, there were three fires in District 3 — which includes Richmond, Anson, Chatham, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Scotland and Stanly counties — that burned 324 acres on May 4. There were a total of 12 across the state, burning more than 350 acres of state and private land.
North Carolina has seen a total of 130 wildfires in just the first four days of May and nearly 2,150 for the year.
Dry conditions, low humidity and moderate winds led to several days in the latter part of April having a red flag warning.
On April 22, a fire burned around three acres on Mount Moriah Church Road, south of Hamlet.
Several sources show that North Carolina ranks fourth in the nation for wildfires, and Franklin said Richmond County often ranks in the top 10 out of the state’s 100 counties.
Since the Mount Moriah fire, Franklin said there have been a few others in the county to burn around 20 acres.
Crews battled a 150-acre wildfire in Osborne Swamp south of Hamlet in April of 2020.
Franklin said he hopes that more rain will put an end to the fire season.
