Carteret Commissioner Chadwick cited for Atlantic fire

A Carteret County commissioner has been cited for a debris burn that burned more than 500 acres in the Lower East Atlantic community.

The North Carolina Forest Service cited Commissioner Christopher James Chadwick, 53, of Stacy, on Tuesday for violating North Carolina General Statute 14-140.1.

According to the law, any person, business, corporation or other legal entity that burns brush, grass or other material endangering property without “keeping and maintaining an attentive guardian in charge of the burning” will be guilty of an infraction .

“Fire escaping from brush, grass, or other material while burning constitutes prima facie evidence of a violation of this provision,” according to the law.

Chadwick told Coastal Review on Friday that he obtained a permit about three weeks ago to burn trees and debris from a tornado that hit the Atlantic earlier this year. The debris was contained within Chadwick's approximately 50 acres adjacent to Marine Corps Outlying Field Atlantic and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands.

“I was monitoring it myself, and I also had an assistant monitoring it, and, you know, we haven't burned in three weeks,” Chadwick said. “We had a few hot spots that would pop up here and there, and we would take the shovel and shovel them out with sand on them, and then there was no smoke, anywhere for probably a week and a half, two weeks, until to Sunday, when the fire broke out.

He said once the flames reached nearby wooded areas, “it became like gasoline.”

Chadwick said the area hasn't seen a prescribed burn in about 15 years. “This reinforces the importance of forest management,” he said.

The commissioner praised firefighters, the Forest Service and the Marine Corps for their roles in responding to the fire. Chadwick said he was thankful no one was injured and the fire wasn't worse.

“I am sorry that the incident happened. We thought we were doing everything right with the permit and the wardens, and it's certainly been so dry and the wind has been so strong for the last two or three weeks that we haven't had any fires,” Chadwick said.