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Written by Lauren Ohnesorge
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Friday, 15 June 2007 18:19 |
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Heavy rain showers brought relieve to the nearly 400
firefighters tackling the Linville Gorge fires in the Pisgah National Forest
Friday.
Between .8 and 1.0 inches of rain fell on the Dobson Knob and Shortoff
Mountain fires overnight, knocking back the fires and allowing crews to
continue building and strengthening containment lines. As of 4 p.m. Friday,
approximately 1,700 acres had burned from the two Burke County fires. The fires
began with lightning strikes on June 6.
The damp conditions helped firefighters complete lines
around the 818-acre Dobson Knob fire. Officials hope to be able to declare it
contained this weekend. The Shortoff Mountain fire, however, due to its steep
rugged terrain, poses more of a problem. Firefighters hope to continue
back-burning, or clearing out combustible fuels inside the control lines to
make it more difficult for fires to spread. The Linville Gorge Wilderness
remains closed to the public.
More information, including detailed maps showing the
current locations of the fires, can be found at the National Forests in North
Carolina website, http://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc.
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