Firefighters in North and South Carolina were battling multiple wind-driven wildfires Monday in rugged terrain that complicated containment efforts, officials said. Hundreds of miles north, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service was battling a blaze in the Wharton State Forest.

In the most critical of current blazes, three large wildfires are driving evacuations and are uncontrolled in North Carolina’s Polk County, about 25 miles southeast of Asheville.

Wildfires forced a mandatory evacuation Sunday in a North Carolina county still recovering from Hurricane Helene, and South Carolina's governor declared an emergency in response to a growing wildfire in that state.