Team reduces risks to community during North Carolina wildfire

July 19, 2023

Smoke filled skies, occlude the sun above the rooftops of a community.of houses — Smoke fills the air during the Great Lakes wildfire in North Carolina, which began on April 19, 2023, and quickly grew to more than 32,000 acres within just a matter of days. Photo courtesy of the Great Lakes incident management team.

NORTH CAROLINA — When the Great Lakes wildfire on the Croatan National Forest in North Carolina started in April, it grew to more than 32,000 acres within just a few days. Fire management staff with the USDA Forest Service knew that if the dry and windy conditions continued for just one more day, hundreds of local citizens and homes would have been immediately threatened by the wildfire.

“Having worked with a mitigation team after the wildfires of 2016, I knew this was a prime opportunity to request help,” said Greg Philipp, deputy fire staff officer for the National Forests in North Carolina.

That help came from a Community Mitigation Assistance Team, which identifies ways to mitigate a fire before it impacts a community. The Forest Service funds these teams, which include members from state, federal, academic and other entities.

“The team quickly partnered with local stakeholders in the Carteret, Craven and Jones counties to identify the hazards, threats and opportunities to reduce wildfire risk to communities,” said Ron Hudson, district ranger on the Croatan National Forest. “The mitigation team also interfaced with the incident management team who was managing the fire.”

Wildfires do not stop at property boundaries. Across the nation more than 70,000 communities and 44 million homes are at risk from wildfire in the wildland urban interface, or areas where homes are built near or among lands prone to wildland fire.

North Carolina is the nation’s leader for number of acres in the wildland urban interface and ranked fourth in the nation for the number of homes in the wildland urban interface.

Smoke covers the sky above a group of houses. — The Bluewater Rise subdivision near the Great Lakes wildfire, in North Carolina. The wildfire began on April 19, 2023, and this photo was taken on April 21. Photo courtesy photo of the Great Lakes incident management team.

With these statistics in mind, the team shared potential funding and capacity building opportunities to build more fire adapted ecosystems and communities. One recommendation was to expand the use of prescribed fire to restore the ecosystem and improve resistance to wildfire.

“Our prescribed burns … reduced the fuels in the area, which helped slow the spread of the Great Lakes wildfire and influenced the options for implementing control strategies,” said Dave Nelson, fire management officer on the Croatan National Forest.

Learn more about how Community Mitigation Assistance Teams foster partnerships that are focused on creating a more fire resilient community and landscape, and the team’s work at the Great Lake wildfire.