More than 300 firefighters and emergency personnel are in Polk County working fire lines on three major wildfires under the Black Cove Complex. Staffing continues to climb from 280 on Tuesday and 240 on Monday.
One-hundred-sixty-five homes have been evacuated from the Black Cove Complex fire and Polk County officials confirm 11 homes have been destroyed.
The city of Saluda declared a state of emergency on Wednesday morning as the fires continued to grow.
Hundreds of firefighters gathered at the Tryon Equestrian Center parking lot at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to receive their morning briefing and assignments.
Oregon's Department of Forestry has flown in 28 firefighters, with ten more coming in the next several days. It's just one group of many coming to help North Carolina Forest Service teams, as well as local fire departments.
"It's an interesting experience because, in the end, you're coming to spray water, dig dirt, and order resources," Ben Becktold, a firefighter with the Oregon Department of Forestry, said. "Very physical things. You want to put the fire out, but to come 32-3,400 miles, whatever that was, to do it, is a little bit of an adventure. But this is someone's emergency with lives and property involved. We're here to protect people and their property but also our own lives on the fire line."
The Oregon team has decades of experience fighting wildfires. Many on the fire lines have been at fires like this before, and while the tasks can be similar, each fire is unique.
"I've been involved in fire forestry for almost 30 years," said Hans Rudolf. "I've worked with the Oregon Department of Forestry for the last 15 years. It's a great experience to come out to other states to help. North Carolina came out last year, and they've come out other times. It's nice to return the favor."
Rudolf explained the challenges with the Polk County fires right now.
"The situation always changes, the wind direction. It looks good in one spot, and then the wind changes, and the fire does what it wants to do," he said. "We're on an engine and we try to get to a spot where we try to knock the fire down. A lot of times, we're doing prep around homes and clearing so if a fire does come that it doesn't threaten the home. It reduces the potential for the house to catch on fire."
Rudolf said hand crews are doing line prepping for burning and operations.
"The goal is to create a buffer of black, so on an engine, we're supporting that," he said. "We follow behind them spraying water so the fire doesn't go where we don't want it to."
Neal Bond, a district protection unit forester with the Oregon Forestry Department, is the point person for the team from Oregon handling all logistics and planning for crews that could rise to a team of 40 by week's end.
"Our team flew in and are in North Carolina Forestry Engines, and they're helping suppress the fire here," said Bond, who's aware homes have been lost now in Polk. "We hate to have anyone's home destroyed. It happens in Oregon and happens here. It just goes to show how deadly and devastating wildfires can be and how quickly they can spread."
STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOSOver 300 first responders battle Black Cove fires as Saluda declares state of emergency
