By BOB HIGH

Investigators from the state Forest Service and Department of Environment and Natural Resources are probing the cause of a fire Thursday afternoon just off N.C. 11 in the Armour community that destroyed more than 3,500 auto and truck tires.

The tires were ignited after a tractor-trailer load of old tires – originating at an unknown location -- was dumped Thursday into a manmade pit about 100 yards off the highway, according to some reports.

Herbert Shaw’s home was less than 100 yards from the site of the pit and fire, according to a county report. Shaw was interviewed by state and county officials at the scene.

The old tires ranged from small automobile and SUV types to larger truck tires and rims that had been dumped for the past 18 months into the clay pit, a large area where soil had been excavated for highway construction.

The tires reportedly came from tire dealers in Wilmington, Brunswick and Columbus counties. It was not known how many of the discarded tires came from any of the retail locations.

Fire equipment from 16 departments responded to the scene, most of the trucks being tanker units to haul water. Trucks from the Acme-Delco-Riegelwood department used a swamp pond for much of the afternoon to knock down the blaze and stop a small woods fire.

Dirt dike built

A Forest Service bulldozer and woods plow made three trips around most of the site to establish a fire line on the north to south points. An acre of woodland was scorched before the fire outside the pit area was controlled.

Ronnie Hayes, director of Emergency Management for Columbus County, noted that a dirt dike was built around the pit late Thursday and the tires were left to smolder after 73 five-gallon containers of chemical foam were used to knock down the flames.

Columbus County departments provided all but 10 units of the foam suppressant. The Northwest Fire Department in Brunswick County provided 10 cans of foam, Hayes reported.

“I could see the fire from the Cape Fear (Memorial) bridge,” noted Steve Camlin, chief of the A-D-R Fire Rescue. “That’s 20 miles,” he added. The initial smoke could be seen boiling almost straight up from as far away as Hallsboro to the west.

Hayes said fire units helping A-D-R included Brunswick County units from Northwest, Leland and Winnabow, Bladen County tanker trucks from Kelly, East Arcadia and Carver’s Creek, and Columbus County equipment from Buckhead, Bolton, Lake Waccamaw, St. James, White Marsh-Welches Creek, North Whiteville, Fair Bluff and Tabor City.

“There were 78 fire and emergency management people at the scene, and at least 70 of them were actual firefighters,” Hayes pointed out.

N.C. 11 was closed for more than five hours, not because of the danger of a smoke-shrouded road, but because tanker and pumper trucks blocked the two lanes as they continually delivered water to control the heat from the fire.
Hayes said the last A-D-R unit left the scene before midnight Thursday.

Forest fire threatens Crusoe

By RAY WYCHE

A forest fire whipped by gusting winds prompted the suggested evacuation of 20 homes on the Long Corner Road in Crusoe Island Saturday and destroyed about 107 acres of woodlands.

People in the home were asked to leave as a precaution as the fire was spread by gusty winds before being brought under control by the N.C. Forest Service aided by volunteer fire departments from Old Dock-Cypress Creek and Hallsboro.

Firefighters called in three airplanes and a helicopter from Kinston to assist in bringing the blaze under control, a job made more difficult by low humidity and wind.

The Forest Service had six fire plow-equipped tractors on the scene also.

The aircraft reloaded fire retardant at the Forest Service’s Bearpen Airstrip in the Green Swamp, where a fire retardant mixing and storage facility is located.

Columbus County Forest Ranger Jamie Ward said he could not recall a previous forest fire in which homes were evacuated because of the danger of catching on fire.

The cause of the fire, the largest of the year for the six-county N.C. Forest District 8, is still under investigation.

Despite gusty winds and continued low humidity, only one other forest fire—in Bladen County— had been reported in the district by late Sunday afternoon, according to Mark Hager, serving as district operations officer Sunday.

The humidity reading at District 8 headquarters west of Whiteville was 16 percent at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Forestry officials are continuing their warning to residents to be extremely careful while burning trash with dry and windy conditions. The service’s readiness plan, the measurement of the probability of a fire getting out of control, stood at five Saturday and Sunday, indicating “extreme danger.”