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Blame a bad weather forecast for that blanket of smoke that covered much of Mecklenburg and York counties Tuesday evening, triggering a flurry of 911 phone calls and complaints from people with breathing problems.
Smoke from a 2,000-acre controlled burn on federal forest property in Chester County drifted northeast across the Charlotte area, dropping visibility at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport from 10 miles to 4 miles in an hour.
"Our forecasts showed the smoke would drift toward Rock Hill and Charlotte, but that it would dissipate before getting there," said Michelle Burnett, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service's South Carolina division, which conducted the burn.
"The wind carried it farther than we expected."
The good news, Burnett said, is that four days of blazes in Chester and Union counties that ended Tuesday marks the finish of the "controlled fire" season, when forestry officials clear underbrush and small trees that could cause major wildfires in the dry months of autumn.
"A lot of the public probably thinks it's illogical to start a fire, but it has benefits," she said.
The benefits were lost on some.
"Our communications center was inundated with calls," Charlotte fire Capt. Mark Basnight said, adding that some residents thought a house was on fire in their neighborhood. "We didn't get any advance word, and that was a problem. We weren't able to alert people."
Burnett and her counterpart with the S.C. Forestry Commission, Scott Hawkins, said they alert N.C. forestry officials when they're planning a fire near the border.
That word never got to Charlotte fire officials, though.
Even a warning wouldn't have helped some people.
"The smoke was horrible," said Steve Borman, who lives in south Charlotte. "My family and several of my neighbors had the symptoms you'd expect with a cold - itchy eyes and pain in the nose, even shortness of breath."
Don't blame federal officials for all the smoke, Burnett said.
"One of our guys was up in a helicopter Tuesday, and he said he saw people all over Chester County having fires," she said.
