5,400 acres burned in Pisgah, though fire contained

The wildfire in the Burke County section of the Pisgah Forest has now consumed some 5,400 acres, though it is now contained, though the terrain has made it difficult to do so.

"You can't get good footing, you don't have a good escape route, you have thick brush that you can't walk through," John Strom, a U.S. Forest Service ranger from Arkansas, told the Charlotte Observer.

Strom spent 18 days in the Pisgah National Forest, where the blaze began June 8, and said the mulch covering the ground allowed smoke and heat to fester inches below the surface.

"This is pretty dang thick stuff, just a mass of organic matter," Strom said.

The fire consumed 1,900 acres in mid-June, and firefighters thought they had nearly contained it. But 10 days later, it flared up and, in a week, more than doubled to 4,517 acres, officials said. ...

By late Tuesday, crews had the fire 95 percent contained, said Dennis Wahlers, a Forest Service spokesman. He said they hoped to fully contain it by the weekend.