News

Here's why wildfire can't easily be extinguished

David Pooleholds a handful of smoldering "duff" an organic layer of material between the leaf cover and soil.

By Amy McCraw, Published: November 9, 2023

High up a steep, narrow logging road on Bald Top Mountain on Wednesday firefighters confronted their enemy — a spongy, organic layer of material between the leaves on the top of the ground and the soil underneath known as “duff.”

“Until there’s significant rainfall, the duff is going to be an issue,” said David Poole, a supervisor with the N.C. Forest Service. “The biggest challenge is getting the heat out of that duff. It will lay in here for days and weeks until we get rain.”
Poole was one of 222 personnel from dozens of emergency responders including local fire departments, firefighters from across the state and the Forest Service battling the Poplar Drive fire in the Kyles Creek community. The fire that has consumed 431 acres is now 15 percent contained and all evacuations have ended.
A burning ban first issued for 14 counties including Henderson on Sunday was extended to 30 counties west of I-77 on Wednesday, according to Philip Jackson, a public information officer with the N.C. Forest Service. All of the state remains dry but the mountains in Western North Carolina remain the driest region, he said.
Poole supervises one area of the fire in Edneyville while two others from the state forest service supervise other locations where the fire has burned.
The fire, which began on Friday, was mostly boxed in by Wednesday but the smoldering duff, which in some areas can penetrate 10 inches into the ground, remained a top concern and a focus for firefighting crews.
As firefighters armed with hoes and water hoses worked their way into the woods on Bald Top Mountain on Wednesday, Poole’s concerns about the duff were apparent.
The forest floor, black from where the fire had burned earlier, seemed to have a slight mist or fog drifting up.
But the fog was in fact smoke from where the fire was still smoldering in the duff.
The danger, Poole said, is if the duff continues to smolder it will eventually ignite singed leaves and dead limbs that fall from the remaining trees and brush in the area. Once the debris is ignited, the fire then has the potential to jump containment lines.
The helicopters that dumped water on the fire’s flames over the weekend are also ineffective against the smoldering duff, Poole said.
“You have to get in here with these hand tools, break it open and then use foam and water,” he said.
The steep slopes and terrain in the mountains where the fire broke out also make firefighting difficult, Poole said.
To get water to the fire on Wednesday, firefighters used what they call a “skidengine or skidgen.” The vehicle based in Mount Holly, N.C., is a skidder outfitted with a 500-gallon water tank that can make its way through the steep logging roads to the fire. Firefighters then use a hose from the water tank to spray water on the duff.
Firefighters also brought in drop tanks on Wednesday. One such drop tank, a cloth 2100-gallon container, was set up on the side of a road down the mountain and allowed firefighters to refill closer to the areas where they were working.
Jackson said he the skidengine, drop tanks and firefighters armed with hand tools are what it will take to mop up or extinguish areas where the fire continues to smolder in the duff.
“It’s hard to get water up here because of the steep terrain,” he said. “That’s what were doing today, working toward higher containment.”
As hard as firefighters are working with as many tools as they can find, both Poole and Jackson acknowledged that defeating the smoldering fires in the duff may take weeks if the weather remains dry.
“The biggest thing we need right now is significant rainfall,” Poole said.