Brunswick County, N.C. — A wildfire broke out Thursday evening, October 1, in the woods outside Ocean Isle Beach, prompting a brief evacuation and drawing an immediate comparison from local officials and residents alike: the fire ignited almost on top of the ground scorched by this past summer’s much larger Quarry Road Fire.
Brunswick County has given the new blaze the name Quarry Road Fire Two, and for good reason. The fire is burning just north of Old Georgetown Road near its intersection with Bricklanding Road, described by local reporters on scene as being near the same stretch of ground burned by the original Quarry Road Fire back in July. That earlier fire, which also ignited near Old Georgetown Road and Hale Swamp Road, grew to roughly 300 acres, burned for several days, destroyed two structures and forced evacuation warnings for about 30 homes before crews brought it under control. Less than three months later, flames are back in essentially the same patch of woods.
Thursday’s fire moved fast enough to trigger an evacuation order for the Lakewood Estates neighborhood off Ocean Isle Beach Road which was the only neighborhood placed under evacuation during the incident. Brunswick County Sheriff Brian Chism confirmed first responders, county officials and the North Carolina Forest Service were all on scene as crews worked to get ahead of the fire. By the 9:15 p.m. update, the county reported the fire had grown to an estimated 50 acres, with Forest Service crews plowing containment lines but no official containment percentage yet available. The evacuation order for Lakewood Estates was lifted later that evening, and as of the county’s most recent update, no injuries or structural damage had been reported.
County officials asked residents to stay away from the area so crews could work safely, warning that heavy smoke was expected to linger and could reduce visibility for drivers near Old Georgetown and Bricklanding roads. The cause of the new fire had not been determined as of the latest update, and the North Carolina Forest Service continued to monitor conditions as an active, evolving situation.
The near-identical location of the two fires is hard to ignore for a community that just spent part of its summer watching smoke rise over the same woods. Southeastern North Carolina has had a rough wildfire stretch in 2026: beyond the two Quarry Road-area fires, a smaller four-acre brush fire burned off Hale Swamp Road back in March, during a period when the state had issued a burn ban due to dry, windy conditions. Taken together, the pattern points to a stretch of woodland between Shallotte and Ocean Isle Beach that has proven unusually fire-prone this year. Brunswick County officials and the Forest Service will likely be watching closely as dry conditions persist.
Residents who are unsure whether they’re inside an active evacuation zone are advised to watch for direct contact from law enforcement or a Wireless Emergency Alert on their phone, and to call 911 if they feel unsafe. Brunswick County has been sharing updates through its ReadyBrunswick emergency notification system.