Pilot Mountain wildfire

ponykilr

ponykilr

Old Crow
Joined
Apr 26, 2021
Location
Lowgap
Looks like Sauratown Mountain isn’t the only burn. Pilot Mountain has currently about 60 acres burned.



www.wxii12.com

Fire at iconic Pilot Mountain burns 1,050 acres, fire about 80% contained

Firefighters continue to battle the fire that started early Saturday evening at Pilot Mountain State Park.
www.wxii12.com www.wxii12.com

After being above normal for rain many months, November has been very dry.
 
Doesn’t look to be under control or I was seeing a back burn. I ran to go close up a blind before I left tonight and can see Pilot clearly from it. Solid fire line about halfway up the mountain as of this evening.
 
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Pilot Mountain from HWY 268 tonight. You couldn’t see the knob on top
 
superman27344 said:
Seems like I saw something in my news feed this morning that there is 300 acres burned so far. If I misread, someone correct me, I only saw it while taking my morning constitutional.
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Yeah that’s about what was on the news last night. The NCFS rep said it will likely go to 900. To me, that means they’re fighting defensively and will “let it” burn out through its own progress, backfires, etc. Conditions suck right now.
 
Pics from about an hour ago at the Mt. Airy airport

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Caver Dave said:
A coworker (that lives near the base) said they believe it was set intentionally 🤬
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There is a thing going on right now with some not so smart people

They are intentionally setting fires on Windy days trying to burn down national forests and state parks

I personally caught douchebag setting Pisgah National Forest on fire , he started the fire on our property on a day when winds were going to reach 40mph plus, fire dept was called, forest service officials, SBI, and sheriffs dept were on site

I subdued him and handed him to authorities at the bottom of the mountain, he played the whole card about not knowing where he was, if I had to do over I would’ve beat the piss out of him, And then handed him off to the authorities
 
WXII tonight said 500 acres and 900 is possible before hopefully containing it.

Also the Sauratown Mountain fire may have flared up, smoke was seen.
 
If someone set it on purpose that’s shitty. Other wise I think long term pilot mountain will be fine… since at least part of this area was planned to burn in the spring.

That said I think a lot of people would be surprised at how many fires nc has over 250 acres every year.

Let’s remember fire doesn’t mean the forest is gone, it comes back strong and better within a few years.
 
Loganwayne said:
If someone set it on purpose that’s shitty. Other wise I think long term pilot mountain will be fine… since at least part of this area was planned to burn in the spring.

That said I think a lot of people would be surprised at how many fires nc has over 250 acres every year.

Let’s remember fire doesn’t mean the forest is gone, it comes back strong and better within a few years.
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It sucks seeing a fire like this happen, but burns (controlled) are actually very beneficial in the sense that it clears out old dead undergrowth and such. It’ll come back. I just wonder how the top will do. I saw somewhere it burnt completely off. I wonder how much viable material is actually up there for roots to get ahold of.
 
Loganwayne said:
If someone set it on purpose that’s shitty. Other wise I think long term pilot mountain will be fine… since at least part of this area was planned to burn in the spring.

That said I think a lot of people would be surprised at how many fires nc has over 250 acres every year.

Let’s remember fire doesn’t mean the forest is gone, it comes back strong and better within a fe...
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I started typing about the benefits of fire in a forest, but I got to wordy and erased it. Mongo out...
 
Drunktaco said:
It sucks seeing a fire like this happen, but burns (controlled) are actually very beneficial in the sense that it clears out old dead undergrowth and such. It’ll come back. I just wonder how the top will do. I saw somewhere it burnt completely off. I wonder how much viable material is actually up there for roots to get ahold of.
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If there is a crack in a rock and moisture things will grow back.

Native Americans have been burning the whole continent since before there was white people.

Nature is no where near as fragile as people make it out to be, but at the same time fragile from us trying to control it.
 
Broke out in a cold sweat when I saw ‘breaking news’ about forest fires when I was in the general vicinity…after seeing how big and how hot I could get the fires I was tending at a rehearsal dinner. Ended up it was about 15 minutes away, but there was a moment of panic when I realized the timeline tracked and knew it was dry/windy. I couldn’t Google my coordinates and the fires quick enough.
 
It’s paper dry in the woods here after more than 2 years of normal to above normal rain. I’m not too far from Pilot and am sure conditions are similar. Only takes a spark.
 
This is from my commute home yesterday. It was clearly worse than yesterday morning and around lunchtime as well.

The smoke had also made its way down to Winston pretty good where there was not much trace of it that morning

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I cannot wrap my head around random folk setting fires in a National Forrest.

What's the motivation? @jeepinmatt
 
rcalexander105 said:
This is from my commute home yesterday. It was clearly worse than yesterday morning and around lunchtime as well.

The smoke had also made its way down to Winston pretty good where there was not much trace of it that morning

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is it burning down the mountain? if so that is a lot more controllable slower burning fire than if burning up the mountain.
 
Loganwayne said:
is it burning down the mountain? if so that is a lot more controllable slower burning fire than if burning up the mountain.
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It appeared that way, but definitely don't quote me on this.

Otw to work it looked like the majority of it was on the other side of the mountain from 52. Otw home it looked like it had certainly made it's way over to the other side where the smoke was much more visible from 52
 
Loganwayne said:
is it burning down the mountain? if so that is a lot more controllable slower burning fire than if burning up the mountain.
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WXII had a fireman from the park service on and he said it was burning down the mountain and that they already had firebreaks done. They seem to think it will be contained to the mountain itself.
 
ponykilr said:
WXII had a fireman from the park service on and he said it was burning down the mountain and that they already had firebreaks done. They seem to think it will be contained to the mountain itself.
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that's good. ALL control burns would have been started at the top and burned down. if firebreaks are in than its pretty much done and just waiting for it to get to breaks.

peoples minds get blown when you tell them that 40 acre fire turned into a 100 acre fire because they back burned 60 acres because that's were the access and safety of the crews where the best.
 
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