UPDATE 2: Sunday, April 23, 2023

A wildfire designated as the Great Lakes Fire is still burning in the Craven County area, which was reported in the early evening on April 19, 2023, with a northern section about five miles southwest of the Coastal Carolina Regional Airport.

(Left) An air recon flight over the fire gives an indication to the size of the area and how much heavy smoke it is producing.

Photo Credit: Shannon Coleman, an NCFS SEAT pilot

Thunderstorms passing through the area dropped much-needed significant precipitation of at least a-half-of-an-inch over the fire ground, enabling ground resources to reach a 30% containment status. Crews have successfully held the fire’s size to yesterday’s 36,000 acres.

On Monday, Unified Command will be established with the U.S. Forest Service and the North Carolina Forest Service. Additionally, the Southern Area Red Team will assume management responsibilities.

Resources currently include aircraft consisting of NCFS SEAT (single-engine air tanker) from the air along with about 20 tractor-plow units, which earlier this morning were helping construct about 25 miles of firebreaks. This will stop the forward spread of the fire and enable it to increase in size.

Firefighters and resources were originally dispatched through the North Carolina Interagency Coordination Center on April 19, 2023, at 1914 hours out of the USFS in Craven County. The current IC is Richard Griffin.

(c) 2023 NW Fire Blog