By RAY WYCHE
Staff Writer

An intentionally set forest fire in the Prosper area near the Green Swamp in eastern Columbus County led to an unlikely series of events before the 120-acre blaze was brought under control Saturday.

The wildfire led to calling out 12 volunteer firemen from the Brunswick Fire Department, not to fight to blaze at Prosper, but to push the Forest Service’s two-engine water bomber into a proper taxiing position at the Columbus County Airport near Brunswick after it had been refueled.

The fueling hose at the Forest Service hangar at the airport was short and the big plane had to be placed close to the fueling station – so close that the aircraft was unable to use one of its engines in the reverse thrust mode to assist in turning the airplane as is normally done.

Getting the plane turned away from the fuel tanks and into position to taxi to the runway required a lot of manpower to push the big plane to a safe location for firing up the engines.

But the Brunswick volunteers answered the call and soon the re-fueled plane, a CL-215 that obtains its water by touching down on a large lake or river and scooping up water to fill its tanks quickly, was on its way to Lake Waccamaw where it made four “on-the-move” water pickups to drop on the Prosper fire.

The fire was burning on a timber company’s land and was controlled by the water bomber and six tractor-drawn fireplows before it was considered contained Saturday afternoon.

Woods fires in inaccessible locations, or those with the potential of burning large areas of woodlands or threatening dwellings if not quickly contained, are fought by aircraft dropping fire retardant on the blazes. Normally, three Forest Service single engines planes based in Kinston are used but Saturday, the three smaller planes were dropping on a 4,200-acre fire in Carteret County.

The CL-215 amphibian, based in Hickory, was called to the Carteret fire but was diverted while enroute to the Prosper fire.

District Forester Shane Hardee said the fire began about noon and was brought under control by late afternoon.

“We checked on it at dark Saturday night,” he said, to make sure the fire had not broken out anew when winds became brisk later in the day.

“Thankfully, we got it (the fire) under control before the high winds got here,” Hardee said.

Heavy rainfalls Sunday greatly reduced the likelihood of wildfires in the area.