ROCKINGHAM — Residents in Richmond County and across central North Carolina are discouraged from outdoor burning over the next two days.
The National Weather Service on Friday issued a special weather statement warning of an increased fire danger until Saturday evening.
“The combination of wind gusts between 20 to 30 mph and minimum relative humidity of 25 to 30 percent will lead to an increased fire danger risk on Saturday near and west of Interstate 95 across central North Carolina,” the statement reads. “Outdoor burning is strongly discouraged in these areas. Please refer to your local burn permitting authorities on whether you can burn. If you do, you are advised to use extreme caution.”
At 4:30 p.m., winds were out of the west at 16 mph with gusts up to 21 mph and humidity was at 26% at Camp Mackall, according to the NWS.
Around six acres of land burned on County Home Road and came close to reaching Plastek on March 28, County Ranger Brandon Van Buren said at the time.
Conditions then were about the same as on Friday, except the humidity was 9% lower.
According to the N.C. Forest Service Fire Response map, a fire burned about a tenth of an acre on Capel Mill Road, west of Norman on April 4, and three-tenths of an acre burned Friday on Chester Drive, off N.C. 381 southeast of Hamlet.
On Thursday, two-tenths of an acre burned in region D3, which includes Richmond County, and there were six fires across the state that burned 2.1 acres, according to the NCFS.
The NCFS reports that there have been 1919 acres burned in 297 fires in just the first week of April, and 3,106 fires have burned about 10,550 acres since Jan. 1.
