Red flag rules poorly enforced

We went camping Saturday night at Falls Lake’s Rollingview campground. I’d checked the forecast before we went and saw that the dry air and wind conditions were likely to result in a ban on campfires at the park. Sure enough, when we arrived the winds were whipping around so much that the tent was blowing away before I could assemble it.

After the family and I put our tents together, our friends arrived and mentioned seeing a small sign at the entrance about the fire ban. I was surprised that we hadn’t seen a sign when we arrived: it must have been a small sign. Later, we saw an 8×10″ sign taped to the wall of the restroom building and it wasn’t very prominent. It said “Red Flag Warning: no fires except charcoal or gas.” The place it was posted was right in the middle of the building, though the restroom doors were on either end.

That was it: that restroom sign was the only sign I actually saw in the whole park. There was no mention of the ban on the Park website, no signs on the campsites, no signs on the path to the campsites, and no signs posted on the restroom doors, either. The rangers never told campers not to burn, nor did they check the campsites to look for any fires.

As a result, the burn ban was roundly ignored. Almost every campsite was sporting a fire, with some of those fires leaping 6 feet or higher into the air. As for us, we were chilly but were determined to respect the fire ban, though the thought of so many fires around us didn’t help my night of sleep (especially the crack! crack! crack! of other campers snapping firewood). Fortunately, no fire burned out of control.

Fire officials are now fighting over 300 wildfires across the state and winds aren’t due to die down until tomorrow. To think that the North Carolina Parks service wasn’t more vigilant in keeping the fire threat down in our parks is irresponsible and deeply troubling, especially knowing that we might be facing many more months of drought.