ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Hundreds of homes in Henderson and Polk counties have been evacuated because of the Black Cove Complex fire.

As people living close to the wildfires monitored the situation, fire officials realized they needed another way to get information out.

“We were seeing that communities were not getting enough notice as far as where was the fire at relative to their house and what was the risk to their community, to their residents,” North Carolina Forest Service Red Team Commander Shane Hardy said during a community meeting Tuesday in Flat Rock.

“They were going from, ‘Well, there’s a fire out there,’ to, ‘Do I need to leave now?’ And that’s what was happening to a large degree early on.”

Earlier this week, officials released an interactive map to help residents track the Black Cove Complex fire and evacuation areas.

The color-coded map, which is on Google Maps, shows the fire perimeter and evacuation areas. People can search for their address to determine their evacuation status (look for the magnifying glass in the top left corner).

  • Zone 1 – Green: Get Ready
  • Zone 2 – Yellow: Get Set
  • Zone 3 – Red: GO!

The grey area on the map is the fire.

Fire officials said that as the fire started moving toward Henderson County, they realized they needed to synchronize the messaging with Polk County.

“Use the same language, so no matter who you’re following, you’re going to get the same information and then have some consistency moving forward,” Henderson County Public Safety Director Jimmy Brissie said.

Level one — green on the map — means there’s a fire in the area. You may not be in danger, but the fire is close enough you need to pay attention.

“Does it mean the fire’s never going to come to your community? No, it does not. Does it mean it can? Yep, it sure does. It is possible,” Hardy said.

Level two — yellow on the map — means the situation is a little more serious. Residents in the yellow areas should prepare for possible evacuation because the fire is getting closer.

Level three — red on the map — means get out, evacuate.

The colors prompted one person at the community meeting to ask how a green section can go straight to red.

“A lot of that is based on the topography and then what the weather’s doing,” Hardy said.

If there’s a feature firefighters think would hold the fire line — a river or road — and the wind is blowing away from the green area, there might not be a yellow zone.

The fires so far have prompted 252 evacuation orders in Polk County and 59 in Henderson County.

Click here to check the Evacuation Map for real-time updates.