Burke County, NC -- The recent rains have brought significant relief for the Linville Gorge fires. Although there are still hot spots putting up smoke in both the Dobson Knob and Shortoff Mountain fires in Burke County, the fires are no longer spreading.

Current acre estimates as of 7pm Sunday are 600 acres for Dobson Knob and 1900 acres for Shortoff Mountain. Containment lines have been completed around the Dobson Knob fire and a confinement line has been secured on the edge of Linville Gorge Wilderness in case the Shortoff Mountain fire were to resume spreading.

The Type One Southern Region Interagency Overhead Team will be winding up operations and

turning over management of the fires to a local U.S. Forest Service team. The total number of personnel on the fire should be quickly dwindling from the 344 firefighters still on the scene Saturday night.

The Linville Gorge Wilderness remains closed to the public at this time. Depending on the weather, the fires within the steep rugged Wilderness could smolder for the next several weeks.