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This will be the last evening update. Starting tomorrow there will be a morning update only.

Great Lakes Fire Evening Update, April 26, 2023

Join us for an in-person community meeting tomorrow evening, Thursday, April 27th, from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. at Creekside Elementary School. The school is at 2790 Landscape Drive in New Bern. This meeting will also be hosted virtually on Facebook Live at https://fb.me/e/5RLxG0dUj.

We have had many offers of donations to firefighters. We are grateful for your support, but currently do not have the capacity for processing and storing donations on site. In lieu of donations to the Great Lakes Fire incident, we ask that you consider making a monetary donation to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.  

Great Lakes Fire: The Great Lakes Fire, located within Croatan National Forest, one mile South-Southeast of New Bern, started on April 19th. The fire is suspected to be human-caused and is still under investigation. It is burning in pocosin swamp and mixed fuels within the footprint of the 2012 Dad Fire, which burned roughly 21,331 acres. Previous prescribed burning by the U. S. Forest Service helped slow fire spread by reducing the amount of burnable vegetation. No structures have been lost and none are currently threatened. 

Acreage: 32,400 acres Containment: 30% 

Personnel and Equipment: 206 total personnel; 4 Helicopters, 16 Type-6 Engines, 19 Type-2 Tractor Plow Units, 1 Fixed Wing Aircraft, 2 tracked vehicles, and 2 Ambulances. 

Today: With morning sunlight, some smoldering fires came to life in the extreme northern and southern ends of the fire today. Air Operations used water drops from helicopters in the southern end of the fire to extinguish fires burning down into organic soils and reduce smoke. Fire crews continued to reinforce firelines west and south of the fire to further protect forested areas and Weyerhaeuser timberlands. They also constructed new contingency lines to the northeast of the fire to increase protection of surrounding communities. The eastern side of the wildfire has shown little smoke during reconnaissance flights, so was in monitoring status. Initial attack firefighters assigned to the incident were on standby and were ready to respond to new fire starts on and around the Great Lakes fire footprint to protect communities. Aerial flights scanning with infrared technology continued to focus on areas still smoldering beneath the ground. Firefighters verified the accuracy of the flights with “boots on the ground” patrols.  Infrared flights indicated heat across the interior of the wildfire. Firefighters continued working closely with the National Weather Service and cooperating agencies. Operational resources included personnel from the U.S. Forest Service, N.C. Forest Service, Craven County Emergency Services, Jones County Emergency Services, the U.S. Marine Corps and Weyerhaeuser Corporation.

Weather and Fire Behavior: The Southern end of the fire received a small amount of rain. Cloudy conditions and potential for rainfall kept fire behavior quiet for much of the day, but we had a slight increase in activity (smoldering and smoke) during periods of clearing skies and wind. 

Air quality: Information on current air quality data for North Carolina is at https://www.airnow.gov/.  

Closures: Road closures on County Line Road and Catfish Lake Road remain in effect. Updates to road closures surrounding the fire is at https://drivenc.gov/. 

Temporary Flight Restriction: A Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) remains in place over the fire area; information is at Federal Aviation Administration website. This is necessary to protect aerial operations. If there are intrusions into the Temporary Flight Restrictions, we must stop aerial operations.