When Nicole Taylor and her family relocated to their picturesque new home nestled in the South Carolina mountains six months ago, it was the breathtaking view of Table Rock Mountain that sealed the deal for them.
But as fate would have it, their idyllic sanctuary turned into a front-row seat to one of at least six wildfires raging in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Carolinas. The blazes have been fueled by the dry conditions and the vast number of trees that were knocked down by Hurricane Helene in 2024, which have now decayed into highly flammable material.
Over the weekend, Taylor observed as smoke began to billow from across Highway 11 in Pickens County. By Monday, the situation escalated, and by Tuesday, heavy smoke was pouring off the mountain, prompting a mandatory evacuation notice for her area.
Despite the devastation, no injuries have been reported so far. The fires have charred over 20 square miles (52 square kilometers) within the rugged, remote forests, including parts of the popular state park encompassing Table Rock Mountain. Thankfully, damage to structures has been minimal, affecting only a few dozen buildings.
Firefighting efforts are proving to be a painstaking task, with limited water resources available to combat the flames. As a result, crews are resorting to creating fire breaks to halt the advance of the infernos. They utilize bulldozers, excavators, and even manual tools such as shovels and saws to clear the land of combustible materials.
It turns into a waiting game, vigilant against embers crossing the breaks and reliant on either calming winds or much-needed rain to provide relief.
Just six months ago, Hurricane Helene tore through Pickens County shortly after Taylor settled into her dream home last September, bringing chaos with hurricane-force winds that reached deep inland, obliterating forests and crippling the electrical grid. This calamity led to a landscape she described as resembling “prairie life” for over a week.
“I thought if we survived that ordeal, we could handle anything, but facing fire is another story,” Taylor remarked.
This week, her family sought refuge in a Greenville hotel, awaiting the fire’s retreat. Despite the blaze maintaining its position across the highway, it’s too close for comfort for them to return home.
Eric Young faced a similar plight when Hurricane Helene’s aftermath forced him and his pets from their Transylvania County, North Carolina home. That ordeal left him with flooded property and a disrupted lifestyle. Now, he’s contending with nearby fires in South Carolina that have again displaced him.
Residing temporarily at a friend’s house near Charlotte, Young mulls over the harsh juxtaposition of recent floods succeeded by fires.
“I thought this area was perfect, just occasional thunderstorms, lovely climate. I never expected to be struck twice within half a year,” he mused.
Forestry officials had anticipated the fire risk posed by fallen trees in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, not just as fuel but also as obstacles for firefighter mobility.
“It’s extremely challenging to navigate through this debris,” stated Toby Cox, the lead firefighter at the Table Rock fire, emphasizing the labor-intensive process in a video update.
Recent history highlights how fire containment in the Carolinas can be prolonged. A fire near Myrtle Beach that endangered homes and charred 2.5 square miles (6.5 square kilometers) earlier in March is nearly 80% contained, yet it still occasionally sends smoke over neighborhoods when the wind shifts.
Though wildfires are a rarity in the Carolinas, they aren’t unprecedented. A major historical event, the Great Fire of 1898, scorched an area equivalent to Connecticut, as noted by David Easterling with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Spring blazes are typically triggered by conditions seen in the Blue Ridge Mountains — dry spells and an extended stretch of sunny, windy days have left the mountains parched with only two-thirds of the typical rainfall since Hurricane Helene, explained Kathie Dello, North Carolina’s state climatologist.
With the mountains’ growing appeal as residential locales, the risk to people and property continues to climb as wilderness areas become more populated.
“North Carolina has numerous homes situated in high-risk fire zones, or wildland-urban interfaces,” Dello pointed out.
Should downed trees from Helene remain unburned this season, they continue to present a heightened fire risk in subsequent years, emphasized Easterling.
As of Thursday, two significant fires persisted in South Carolina. The Table Rock blaze has devoured 7.1 square miles (18.4 square kilometers), while the fire on Persimmon Ridge in Greenville County has consumed 2.4 square miles (6.2 square kilometers).
These two fires, approximately 8 miles (13 kilometers) apart, prompted emergency evacuations of residents between them, extending into neighboring Transylvania County, North Carolina.
In North Carolina, firefighters are tackling at least eight mountain fires, with the Black Cove and Deep Woods blazes in Polk County only 17% and 30% contained, respectively. These fires have ravaged nearly 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) combined but have shown minimal growth in recent days as firefighting efforts advance.