News

Evacuation orders lifted, forest service warns of post-burn hazards

By Bill Moss, Published: November 21, 2016

LAKE LURE — Because the threat from the Party Rock Fire has diminished, the U.S. and North Carolina forest services lifted all evacuation and pre-evacuation notices for the Town of Lake Lure and surrounding neighborhoods at noon Monday.

The evacuation orders were cancelled for parts of the Rumbling Bald Resort that have been under a mandatory evacuation notice: Deerfield; Fairfield; Youngs Mountain; and Quail Ridge. The pre-evacuation notice for Three Creeks, Cedar Creek Road, Buffalo Creek Road, Riverbend Highlands, Tatanka, Apple Valley, Shumont Estates and Buffalo Shoals, is also cancelled as of noon today.
A state of emergency remained in effect for the town of Lake Lure. Fire and town officials caution everyone that the recently burned areas contain many hazards, including damaged and standing dead trees called "snags," that can fall without warning at any time. There are also stump holes, some of which may still contain enough heat to cause serious burns to people and pets.
The Lake Town Hall is now open for normal business hours, but only through the front entrance, and using the front parking lot. The rest of the area around the municipal building is still being used as an incident command post and is closed to the public. The park also remains closed as it serves as fire base camp, with access restricted to incident personnel. Visitors to town hall should use caution because of the high volume of fire and emergency traffic.