In the line of fire: A view from the frontlines of the Holly Shelter Game Land wildfire

For Shane Hardee, the past week has felt all too familiar.

The District 8 forester with the North Carolina Forest Service is serving as the deputy incident commander on the wildfire burning more than 1,200 acres in the Holly Shelter Game Land in Pender County.

But, he’s not new to the role or the game land – the same area burned more than a decade ago and Hardee was then where he stands now, at the fire line.

Previous coverage: Holly Shelter wildfire: NC Forest Service reports Pender County blaze 53% contained

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‘Here we go again’

Hardee crosses his arms and shuffles his boots in the dense soil. Smoke rises from the ground behind him. It’s been a week since the Juniper Road Two Fire escaped containment and began to grow.

He points to the right, to an area across the dirt road lined with trucks and equipment. He’s standing less than a quarter mile from where the Juniper Road Fire began on June 19, 2011.

He remembers the day clearly.

The fire was initially burning 100 acres. Hardee arrived at the scene the day after the initial fire was contained.

That morning, he flew over the area, checking overhead for any signs of escape. That afternoon, the fire escaped containment.

Last week, Hardee got word the Juniper Road Two Fire had escaped containment.

“It was déjà vu,” Hardee said. “My team got in the same positions we were in then, got a helicopter like we did then, took off and flew in the same direction as we did then. I thought, ‘Here we go again.’”

Same place, different burn

The Juniper Road Fire in 2011 burned for six weeks and consumed more than 19,000 acres (or 49 square miles). Some Pender County residents were forced to evacuate their homes due to dense smoke. More than 100 forestry personnel from across the state helped contain it.

The wildfire currently burning – the Juniper Road Two Fire – has been much milder so far.

The fire was caused by a lightning strike on Aug. 2 and burned 10 acres. Forest Service personnel contained the fire, but on Aug. 10, it escaped containment.

Still, no homes, structures or roads have been threatened or impacted.

Hardee said while the two fires began in the same area, they’re different in many ways, for many reasons.

The Juniper Road Two Fire is burning the ground. The area hasn’t completely recovered from the 2011 fire, meaning the presently burning fire has less available to burn – especially vertically.

“The 2011 fire grew vertically very fast, which helped it also grow horizontally very fast,” Hardee said.

In 2011, the ground was drier, and the rare heat and low humidity that June allowed the fire to grow larger than the current one has.

“The hotter the fire, the faster it grows,” Hardee said.

Adding fuel to the fire

Driving down a gravel road through the game land, Chris Meggs’ white pickup truck is a stark contrast to the tall, longleaf pine trees and dark soil on either side of the road.

“This is a bad fire area,” the North Carolina Forest Service ranger said.

The game land is vast – nearly 65,000 acres of largely undisturbed forest and impounded wetlands. When lightning strikes, Meggs said, it could be several days before someone notices smoke.

“By the time we get to it, it’s usually already grown fairly large,” Meggs said.

The rich, organic soil that coats the majority of the game land – peat moss soil – serves as fuel for wildfires.

Peat moss soil can hold several times its weight in moisture but, in dryer summers like these, the extremely flammable organic material could be several feet deep in some areas.

Ground fires are persistent, Hardee said.

“When the soil itself burns, it’s hard to do much with that,” Meggs added. “You’ve either got to flood it, or let it burn down.”

It takes a village

More than 80 North Carolina Forest Service personnel are assigned to the incident. While dozens of them are on the fire line – doing the “hot and sweaty work,” as Meggs puts it – there’s a lot more that goes into fighting a fire.

“It takes a team of people to support those guys on the ground,” Meggs said.

The team on the ground and in the air is largely made up of personnel from the forest service’s District 8 – which is headquartered in Whiteville and serves Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover and Pender counties – and Region 1, which covers the Eastern part of the state.

A team of North Carolina Forest Service personnel from across the state mobilized to Pender County to handle the logistics side of the blaze. They’re recording equipment use, arranging hotel stays for crew members, ensuring those on the ground are fed and hydrated, sending out communications and news releases, and using science and technology to inform firefighting efforts.

From personnel and equipment costs to food and travel expenses, Hardee said the Juniper Road Two Fire comes with a price tag of roughly $18,000 a day.

Hardee said that’s relatively cheap for a fire involving so many personnel, largely because most of the equipment being used is state-owned.

'The risk is not entirely gone'

The Juniper Road Two Fire was 77% contained as of Thursday morning, according to the North Carolina Forest Service. But, containment is only the first step.

After all, this fire was “completely contained” weeks ago, but weather conditions allowed the fire to reignite and spread. It’s roughly three miles long, currently, Hardee said.

“We really don’t expect this thing to grow anymore,” Meggs said. “But there’s still a lot of heat out there.”

Firefighting personnel has held the Juniper Road Two Fire to 1,226 acres since last week.

“Right now, we’ve got lines around this fire,” Hardee said. “That doesn’t mean this fire is over. This fire could still cause some problems – we could spend months on this line.”

Hardee’s hoping for rain over the weekend to help containment efforts. But, he said, if it doesn’t come, the quickly approaching – and likely dry – September could make the fire hard to completely extinguish.

“It still has potential,” Hardee said. “Just because we have it stopped at 1,226 acres and a lot of great work has been done by a lot of good men and women, the risk is not entirely gone. We could see this fire two months from now still a concern.”

Jamey Cross is the public safety reporter at the StarNews. Reach her at jbcross@gannett.com or message her on Twitter @jameybcross. 

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: The Holly Shelter wildfire could burn for months. Here's why.