Pender County wildfire remains 1,226 acres, now 53 percent contained

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Crews battling the Holly Shelter Game Land wildfire continue to gain ground on the blaze.

The latest update shows the wildfire is now 53 percent contained, despite remaining at 1,226 acres in size.

Officials say Monday night’s rainfall helped deliver half and inch of rain on the fire area, which helped to extinguish some of the fire.

Despite the progress, crews say they don’t want to get overconfident.

“We can’t get complacent. History tells us from previous wildfires in this area that the vegetation can dry out quickly and areas that are still smoldering within the fire imprint can reignite available fuels,” Incident Commander Michael Cheek said. “We’re grateful for the rain we’ve received, but we’re not turning our backs to this fire.”

With increased containment and rainfall, certain resources assigned to the incident are beginning to demobilize. Resources remaining on the incident include six tractor plows with six crewmen, one low ground pressure track vehicle, one scout and one lead plane, two single engine air tankers, one helicopter, and 62 NCFS personnel.

A temporary flight restriction (TFR) remains in effect for the fire area. The TFR restricts all civilian aircraft, manned and unmanned, within 5 miles of the fire. The flight restriction remains in place until aviation support is no longer needed.