Don Simon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, said one fire was caused by a lightning strike. Others are currently being labeled as human-caused but are still under investigation. No injuries have been reported and there has been little structural damage.
“We’ve had acres burned, about 6,000 or so acres, but only one structure — an abandoned, dilapidated building — burned down,” he said. “Other than that, we’ve had no damage, except for the forest, which will regrow if we get some rain.”
According to Steve Norman, a research ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service, this year is the seventh driest on record in the area since 1895. However, he said forest health will not be heavily impacted by the fires, despite their unusual abundance and unpredictability.
“A lot of these forests that are burning are oak-dominated forests, and they are historically very fire-adaptive,” he said. “It’s not like a fire is the end of time; you have to be careful how you talk about wildfire in a fire-adaptive system.”
J. Keith Gilless, a professor of forest economics at University of California-Berkeley, said detrimental changes to air quality are the most prominent environmental consequence of forest fires on the East Coast.
“Given that air quality is frequently bad in periods when you’re experiencing forest fire conditions anyway, you add a lot of particulate matter to the atmosphere and you could end up causing some public health issues,” he said. “In its extreme, you can cause very serious public health consequences.”
Norman said the large amount of smoke coming from the fires is one of the biggest concerns.
“Some homes are being evacuated and people are suffering from respiratory problems,” he said.
To prevent more fires in the future, Gilless said to exercise caution when using anything that could start a fire.
“Fire is a natural part of any ecosystem, including there,” he said. “You can certainly reduce the number of fire starts by just people being careful about their activities.”