A large wildfire in the South Carolina mountains has doubled in size on each of the last three days. But fire crews have been able to keep the blaze away from structures.
Firefighters battling the Table Rock Mountain fire have concentrated on saving lives and property by digging fire breaks that push the blaze north through undeveloped land on the Pickens County ridges near the North Carolina state line, officials said Friday. No injuries have been reported.
Airplanes and helicopters have completed more than 550 water-dropping missions on the Table Rock fire and a second blaze on Persimmon Ridge about 8 miles away.
But for now it is mostly defense in the Blue Ridge Mountains until the weather cooperates with a soaking rain or lessening winds, South Carolina Forester Scott Phillips said at a news conference Friday at Table Rock State Park.
“With these fires and the conditions we are facing in the state right now — the dryness of the fuel, the extremely low humidity, the high winds that we’re having — containment is very, very difficult to achieve,” Phillips said.
The Table Rock and Persimmon Ridge fires have burned about 17 square miles. The Table Rock fire started a week ago and has been doubling in size since Tuesday as windy and dry conditions have spread through the mountains.
In North Carolina, at least eight fires were burning in the mountains. The largest — the Black Cove Fire and the Deep Woods Fire in Polk County — were becoming more contained. They have scorched about 10 square miles combined but have barely grown late this week.
