By Friday afternoon, state forestry officials estimated that 8,679 acres had burned at Table Rock Mountain since a fire broke out there one week earlier, and that 1,992 acres had burned at Persimmon Ridge, about 10 miles east of Table Rock, since sparking last Sunday.
When combined, the acreage consumed by the two fires has doubled every day since Tuesday, due mainly to a combination of sunny days, steady winds, almost no rain, and thousands of acres of trees and limbs felled by storms, including Hurricane Helene – the last of which is also inhibiting access to crews trying to get to the fires.
All those factors, added up, have led to zero containment of the fires so far – even though the South Carolina National Guard and the State Law Enforcement Division have, combined, dumped about three-quarters of a million gallons of water on the flames.
And no one, including State Forester Scott Phillips, sees any relief in sight.
“During the month of March, the [South Carolina] Forestry Commission has responded over 373 wildfires, burning over 18,100 acres within the state.,” Phillips said at a press conference at Table Rock Friday. “That's orders of magnitude more than we typically do within a month, even more than we do in some years.
April is the typical peak of wildfire season in South Carolina, meaning that the month ahead could bring more fires to the state.
“And this time of year, from March through … June is our dry season,” said Greg Quina, air quality monitoring manager at the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services. “Unfortunately, it's also our windy season, with the changing of weather patterns and fronts that come in. They tend to be stronger this time of year.”
All of that is leading to a kind of pessimism about the coming spring months.
“We don't see significant condition changes that will decrease the wildfire threat during the month of April or potentially into May,” Phillips said. “So, this is going to be a long season for us.”
Because there is so much smoke billowing into the air in and around Greenville and Pickens counties, it also is likely to be a long spring for anyone with respiratory issues, such as asthma or emphysema.
“For a person like that, this [set of fires] could be a very serious event,” said Dr. Edward Simmer, interim director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health. “They could really have breathing spasms; they could get very short of breath and actually have a very serious incident.”
While Dr. Simmer said that otherwise healthy people are not likely to suffer long-term issues from short or moderate exposure to smoke from the fires, anyone with an existing respiratory condition should take steps to avoid being outside.
“I certainly recommend wearing a mask,” Dr. Simmer said. “The good news is that these particles are large, so almost any mask will work. You don't need to have an N95. You can wear that, but even a cloth mask should filter out most of it. Even a bandana.”
Dr. Neil Kao, an allergist at the Allergic Disease and Asthma Center in Easley, however, says that there’s more in the air than just large particles from burning trees.
“There's also the gases that come off of the things that burn, and that's not good either,” Dr. Kao said.
These gases, he said, can come from molds and the ubiquitous springtime pollen already wafting around the Carolinas. They can also come from animals and vines that get burned in the fire. And, cloth masks can’t filter out gases.
Add to that, Dr Kao said, the sunny days that the Upstate has been getting for weeks bring up the specter of something else.
“The hours of daylight are longer and that also contributes to a lot of ultraviolet radiation,” he said. “When something's burning and you have UV, that's the ingredients to make smog.”
Quina said smog could be a problem when it comes to ozone levels.
“Usually, we hear the word smog when ozone is high,” he said. “I wouldn't be surprised to see ozone levels bump up. But I think we're probably looking okay, at least our monitor locations.”
Even for otherwise healthy people in the area of the fires, Drs. Simmer and Kao said that avoiding long exposure to smokey air is a good idea. Dr. Kao recommends avoiding strenuous outdoor activity, like running, and Dr. Simmer recommends changing HVAC system air filters a couple times per month while the smoke exists.
Ultimately, Quina said, the Upstate needs a soaking tropical storm that doesn’t bring destruction, just a lot of steady rainfall.
“We do need a good rain,” he said. “Without a whole lot of wind because we know that wind is going to give us an uptick in fire activity, and we definitely don't want the wind.”
While no one is expecting enough rain anytime soon – even though the Upstate is expecting some rain over this weekend – the fires will eventually die out at the Table Rock Complex. Once that happens, said Dr. Simmer, residents cleaning up any mess should be careful about how they clean up.
“If [soot] starts to accumulate and you sweep it, that puts it right back up in the air and gives you a big dose of it,” he said. “I wouldn't use a blower. Sweeping may be okay, if you're wearing a mask, but you do have to be careful.”
Updates on the Table Rock Complex fires can be found at the South Carolina Forestry Commission’s website. Click Here.
