South Mountain State Park officials say more work before park reopens after wildfires

BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — It could be some time before the road-closure signs at the entrance of South Mountains State Park come down.

Firefighters took Channel 9 reporter Dave Faherty deep into the park today to show the problems up close.

They said the biggest concern is trees that were so badly damaged by the fire, they could come down on a hiker.

A plane will take off and fly over the park several times with infrared equipment checking for hot spots Friday night.

"The parks not going to open back immediately. There's a lot of snags, a lot of burnt trees and dead trees near the road and we've had a fire go through and the root base is burnt out from underneath that tree," said Shane Yarborough, who fought in the Chestnut Knob Fire.

Less than a half mile from the front entrance, resident Angel Mort said a bulldozer was used to cut a path around her home to protect it from the wildfire.

She and her family love visiting the park and hiking the trails but like many here, she is trying to be patient.

"Very anxious to get it reopened. We miss it, but we do understand the issues. The top priority obviously being people's safety," said Mort.

We could also see today where firefighters have made changes to the trails to redirect water in hopes of preventing erosion and mudslides.

More than 27 miles of trails were affected by the wildfire.

Each must be carefully inspected, and that could take some time.

The good news tonight is the fire burned mostly the underbrush, allowing the beauty of the park to come back quicker.

"You might see some signs of a fire like charred trees and a little bit of charred bark around base of trees but by spring time, most of this will be green and it will be hard to tell there was a wildfire in this area," Yarborough said.

Channel 9 asked officials if the park could reopen by January 1, but were told that is unlikely.

When it does reopen, it may be with limited trail access.

Cox Media Group