Thick smoke from a prescribed burn on Pea Island Monday afternoon caused an “arc” that took down a breaker, leaving Hatteras and Ocracoke islands without power for about 25 minutes.
Today, during the Pea Island prescribed fire, thick smoke caused an “arc” that caused a breaker to break, which caused a power outage of about 25 minutes for Hatteras Island. Kudos to Cape Hatteras Electric Membership Coop for their quick response in getting service restored for all of us! Apologies to Hatteras Island residents for the inconvenience, and a reminder to all of us that getting that fuel load reduced today may save us from a much worse power outage down the road- or worse. Besides improving habitat for critters, these prescribed burns reduce fuel loading. Less fuel means less danger from wildfires.
Posted by USFWS in North Carolina on Monday, March 18, 2019
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service apologized to island residents and thanked the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative for their quick response in getting electricity restored.
“Apologies to Hatteras Island residents for the inconvenience, and a reminder to all of us that getting that fuel load reduced today may save us from a much worse power outage down the road- or worse,” the USFW North Carolina wrote in a Facebook post. “Besides improving habitat for critters, these prescribed burns reduce fuel loading. Less fuel means less danger from wildfires.”
Land managers use controlled fires to help restore and maintain wildlife habitat and reduce the load of vegetation that may ignite in case of a wildfire.
Burn season typically runs January through March. Some burns, however, are conducted into spring and summer, as warm season burning provides for better control of young hardwoods in certain habitats, the commission said in a news release.
Many of North Carolina’s declining or rare wildlife species, such as the red-cockaded woodpecker, are adapted to fire or found only in fire-dependent habitat. The N.C. Wildlife Commission staff typically conduct maintenance burns in multi-year cycles to open groundcover for quail, grassland birds, deer and turkeys.
