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‘It’s only going to get worse’: Wildfire risk grows in western North Carolina
Matthew Rogers lost his cabin in Flat Rock to wildfires after making his final mortgage payment, highlighting the growing threat driven by climate change.
FLAT ROCK, N.C. — Matthew Rogers had just made his final mortgage payment on the cabin he bought 30 years ago in Flat Rock when a wildfire tore through the property, turning a lifetime of memories into ashes.
“Everything is gone… it’s just so hard to see it,” Rogers said. “I still do a little bit of crying every day.”
His home was one of nearly a dozen lost this spring in a wave of wildfires across western North Carolina.
The flames didn’t just destroy homes, they exposed what fire officials are calling a dangerous pattern fueled by climate change and made worse by a lack of resources.
More than 2,000 acres are currently burning in McDowell County in the Bee Rock Creek Fire, which was 50 percent contained as of Tuesday morning, according to the North Carolina Forest Service.