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Sunday, June 15, 2008

Sizzling Hot News!

Forest fires near Elizabeth City, NC have consumed more than 160 kilometers and is only 40% contained.

That is why we are seeing so much smoke around here in Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester Counties. The fires started on Monday and the smoke you see and smell in the air is from North Carolina.

Imagine if it were a nuclear attack. . . the radio active fallout would be enormous.

GO HERE to read the official article.

Elsewhere, in eastern North Carolina, areas north of a fire around the Pocosin Lakes Wildlife Refuge were under the most severe air pollution warning the state has ever issued. The warning includes the cities of Edenton and Elizabeth City.

The fire has charred more than 62 square miles and was only 40 percent contained. Fire spokesman Dean McAlister said firefighters expect it will continue to smolder until the area gets enough rain to soak the peat soil.

A wildfire in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, which straddles Virginia and North Carolina, prompted a smoke advisory Saturday for much of the Norfolk, Va., area.

The fire, which started Monday, has burned almost 2.25 square miles and wiped out parts of a project to restore Atlantic white cedar trees.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info. I was wondering about the smoke, but I couldn't find answers from the DT or WBOC.

Anonymous said...

Those fires started before Monday.Outer Banks were smokey from fires last week.

Anonymous said...

FYI:

NOAA had a smoke warning/hazardous weather here yesterday -- at Assateague in the early afternoon (I was there) visibility was less than 1/2 mile -- and it was like that for several miles inland. OC must have been horrid, too.

At times you could actually smell the fire odor.

Tim Chaney said...

A friend of mine was out in the bay in Ocean City yesterday and said he thought it was hazy, he said when they got not too far offshore you couldn't see the shore. He later found out it was smoke.

Anonymous said...

Wow! That's not far from my old China Buddies home in Coinjock. I will have to call and insure he is OK. I could smell the smke too and wondered what it was.

A. Goetz

Tim Chaney said...

I read it was 40,000 acres on fire.