Jason Loflin prepares firewood for customers at one of his lots in Thomasville, N.C., where demand was high enough recently that he recruited friends from his gym for help, on Feb. 13, 2026. Weeks of freezing temperatures and winter storms across parts of the United States have increased the demand for firewood and manufactured fire logs. (Travis Dove/The New York Times)
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In Nashville, Tennessee, which is still recovering from an ice storm last month that caused widespread power outages, business has been booming for Bradley Hite, a firewood supplier who said there was a wait of up to two weeks for delivery.
And in North Carolina, Jason Loflin had to recruit buddies from his gym to help him deliver firewood to scores of customers seeking warmth.
Bitter cold weather and a cascade of winter storms across large sections of the United States have intensified demand for logs, natural hardwoods and manufactured, too.
It has also put pressure on suppliers, sawmills and retailers to keep up with the surge of people looking to feed their fireplaces or furnaces.
“People were like very desperate and in dire need,” said Loflin, 42, the owner of the Firewood Guy NC in Thomasville, North Carolina.
Loflin said that he was receiving 150 calls a day, up from his usual 10 to 15, before a potent winter storm hit North Carolina at the end of January. “This year has been by far the busiest year we’ve ever had,” he said.
Customers Expected to Lose Power
Some of his customers were expecting to lose power. Others wanted a supplemental heat source, said Loflin, whose father started the business 38 years ago.
“We got down in the single digits, around zero degrees there a few nights,” he said. “So they were kind of using it to keep the house warm, keep the pipes from freezing.”
Hite, 32, owner of Nashville Firewood, also a second-generation business, said he had to turn away potential customers in the frenzy for firewood.
“They would say, ‘Can I get wood delivered today?’” Hite said. “‘Is there any way we can do that?’ I would say, ‘I’m sorry. We can’t do that. We’re two weeks out on delivery.’”
Daniel Moznett, director of sales and marketing for Duraflame, the fire log manufacturer, said the company had also noticed an increased demand for its products.
Sales figures were not available from Duraflame, a private company, but Moznett, citing data from the research firm Circana, said fire log sales in grocery stores had surged 63% in dollars and 57% in units the week before major U.S. storms hit in late January.
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Neil Vigdor/Travis Dove
c. 2026 The New York Times Company
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