As Cold Mountain burns, US Forest Service closes entire trail system in Shining Rock Wilderness

Karen Chávez | The Citizen-Times

Visitors driving the Blue Ridge Parkway about 30 miles southwest of Asheville can expect to smell smoke and see flames shooting from the summit of Cold Mountain.

The U.S. Forest Service has closed the entire 18,000-acre Shining Rock Wilderness Area, including all 53 miles of its trails to the public while a wildfire burns on the iconic Cold Mountain in the Haywood County area of Pisgah National Forest.

Bruce MacDonald, public information officer with the National Forests in North Carolina, said the 50-acre fire burning on the Cold Mountain summit was called in about 3 a.m. Nov. 21, but had grown to 106 acres as of 5 p.m.

Some 30 firefighters are monitoring the situation, including personnel from the U.S. Forest Service, N.C. Forest Service, National Park Service, Haywood County Emergency Services and Cruso Fire Department.

The Cold Mountain summit, one of the highest on the East Coast at 6,030 feet elevation, is in an extremely remote, rugged area of the wilderness, which has no roads, making it impossible to get vehicles on scene, MacDonald said.

Watch smoke rise from the Cold Mountain fire Smoke rises from the Cold Mountain fire November 22, 2019.

While most of the mountain is owned by the U.S. Forest Service, there are some private inholdings with structures on a side ridge.

“This is wilderness area, with very few developed values at risk. Now we’re just looking at what the burning is doing and looking at appropriate fire suppression techniques for the fact that it’s wilderness and the fact that there’s good chance of rain Saturday,” MacDonald said.

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Firefighters trying to contain fire

So far there has been no active firefighting, he said, although the Forest Service did send up a helicopter for reconnaissance. As of 5 p.m. Nov. 21 there had been no water drops, he said.

Firefighters are putting in containment lines — digging ditches to eliminate fuel such as woody debris and leaves — on the north side of the fire to keep it from approaching private property. But for now the fire is completely on national forest land.

"We have clouds over us, which will hold the smoke in a little more, but that will also dampen down the fire behavior," MacDonald said. "It will probably smolder and be smoky all night long and will smell in here."

Smoke from Cold Mountain could be seen from downtown Asheville.

“The typical nature is to evaluate where the fire is and decide what values you have at risk and apply best suppression techniques for what’s needed. It’s all a constant evaluation right now,” he said.

"Our focus is on keeping the fire held up into the wilderness. We are going to have a night shift monitoring area all night and be able to respond as needed."

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Cold Mountain, iconic not only for its namesake novel by Asheville author Charles Frazier, which was also made into a move (not filmed in North Carolina) starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law about a Confederate soldier making his way home after deserting his post, is also a well-known landmark, easily identifiable from the Cold Mountain Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost 412 near the U.S. 276 entrance.

Because it is in a wilderness area, a designation of the forest that comes under special regulations, there are no roads, very few trail markers and campfires are prohibited. Shining Rock Wilderness is the largest of the six wilderness areas in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests. It also encompasses the popular Art Loeb Trail.

MacDonald said as of now there is no known cause of the fire.

He stressed that Western North Carolina is now in the height of fall fire season, when it is drier than usual and the many downed, dry leaves are easy fire starters.

It was in November 2016 when WNC experienced historic forest fires that burned more than 30,000 acres across the Pisgah and Nantahala, which cover 1.1 million acres of forest.

Forest service officials are asking the public to avoid the area to allow firefighters to focus on responding to the fire and to not fly drones, which would interfere with firefighting aircraft in the area.

To see a video of the fire burning, visit the National Forests in North Carolina Facebook page.