HAMLET — Several small grass fires were sparked west of town along two roads Wednesday afternoon.
According to the Hamlet Fire Department, a vehicle was pulling a trailer with metal striking the ground and setting off sparks that caught the dry roadside grass on fire.
The N.C. Wildfire Public Viewer shows there were 11 fires — six on Freeman Mill Road and five on Battley Dairy Road — with each burning about a tenth of an acre.
The fires were extinguished by the Hamlet and East Rockingham fire departments.
N.C. Forest Service records show there was also a fire in East Rockingham — in the block south of Mill Road between Dawkins, Calvert and Martin streets — that burned four-tenths of an acre.
Despite the dry weather, it appears there were three prescribed burns in Richmond County: one on Cognac Road; another on Ghio Road near the Scotland County line; and the third on Bethany Road, just south of the intersection with Grassy Island Road.
The viewer shows two small wildfires reported Tuesday in the northern end of the county, each burning about a tenth of an acre: one near the intersection of U.S. 220 and Pressley Rankin Highway; and the other on N.C. 73 near Hill Top Road.
According to the N.C. Forest Service, there were 179 fires that burned 437.7 acres statewide in the first four days of 2026.
There are currently no burn bans in effect, however NCFS officials warn that careless debris burning is the leading cause of wildfires.
