Lightning sparked a fire on June 19, 2011, within the Holly Shelter Game Land in North Carolina. Hot, dry conditions fueled the fast ignition of over 30,000 acres of thick evergreen shrubs and deep highly flammable coal-like soil. Lingering drought in the area has hampered efforts to extinguish the fire, which is currently 90 percent contained. However, some of the fire area involves peat bogs, and fires in those units are very difficult to end and may burn for a very long time.
While the fires cause immediate devastation to wildlife and plant populations, the fire will also provide a long-term revival of natural habitats for plants and wildlife.
The June 19, 2011, image was acquired earlier in the day that the fire started. The image acquired on July 21 shows the fire scars (brown), active fires (red), and smoke (light blue).
Landsat imagery are used by fire control and state officials to monitor the extent and rate of the fires and the general vegetation species destroyed. Future Landsat acquisitions will be used to track the recovery of the area.