As I was sitting in my garage studio, planning a new printing project involving mayapple leaves, I noticed a strange low cloud drifting over a nearby ridge. “This isn’t the right weather for fog,” I thought. “Oh no.”
Oh yes.
I was witnessing the beginnings of Bee Rock Creek Fire, visible from afar as a wide white plume drifting over the landscape. The fire immediately began to advance toward the NPS’s second home, the Wildacres retreat, which is currently under a mandatory evacuation order. Some of our own NPS members were evacuated that evening and removed from their spring art workshop to the Little Switzerland Inn as the fire spread from its modest 75-acre early estimate and increased to what, two days later, is now over 500 acres burned.
It’s been a very difficult year for Western North Carolina. We weathered the severe damage from Hurricane Helene, and that was sufficient weather trouble for most of us. But since then, we’ve endured droughts, high winds, and numerous wildfires, one of which burned the home of our own NPS president, Lori Loftus. Now, as the NPS’s autumn retreat is threatened by this wildfire creeping steadily through the Pisgah National Forest, I wonder what in the world can possibly happen next, and I long for peace and tranquility to return to this area.
The cause of the Bee Rock Creek Fire is unknown. The terrain where it is burning is treacherous; it’s full of debris where trees were downed by the hurricane. The debris and the steep terrain limits access to fight the blaze; water-drop helicopters and additional crew have been called to help manage it. Wildacres Road has been evacuated; that road is the only way it’s currently possible to access the retreat. Landslides from Helene have closed the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Locals have been asked to avoid the area so that firefighters can have unrestricted access. So far no residences have been lost; a fish hatchery is threatened, as is Wildacres. The fire is presently only 10% contained. Little or no rain is in the forecast.
The best available map of the spreading fire was made yesterday. The fire had grown to 300 acres at that time, and has spread to 504 acres since then, as reported this morning at about 11:17 AM.
I’m sending up my hopes to whatever powers may be listening, asking that our autumn workshop plans will not be turned to ash, and that the homes and lives of all involved will be spared.
For more information and updates on the Bee Rock Creek Fire, click here
For information on Blue Ridge Parkway closures and repairs, click here
Lynn McKinney is the Nature Printing Society’s newsletter editor.
