Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504120057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER NOTE: Lede
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nearly 5,200 acres were scorched in three separate fires in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. An arson task force went into action Tuesday afternoon to investigate whether any of the fires had been set.
Even if the fires are fully contained today, "none of them are going to be out till we get a significant amount of rain," said Woody Lipps, a law enforcement officer for the national forest.
No houses were in danger Tuesday, and firefighters concentrated on completing breaks around each fire to keep them from spreading.
Firefighters are hoping for at least an inch of rain today to douse the fires. Anything less than that, and only the top layer of the forest floor will get wet, leaving the underneath parched and susceptible to reigniting.
"It's all going to hinge on how much rain we get," said Steve Croy, a Forest Service biologist from Roanoke who was tapped to help fell trees along the firebreak in the Potts Mountain area. "It could start all over this weekend."
The National Weather Service gives an 80 percent chance of scattered showers and afternoon thunderstorms today. Southeast winds will increase to 10 to 15 mph. It's supposed to be mostly sunny and breezy Thursday.
For the most part, the fires scorched the ground and anything lying on it, but left trees standing. Croy said that will benefit the forest in some ways: putting nutrients into the ground, changing the composition of the soil and creating habitat for wildlife.
"It actually does some good, the more we're learning what role fire plays in the ecosystem," he said.
But, Lipps said, the warm weather this year has speeded up the renewal of spring, making young animals and plants particularly vulnerable.
Poplar trees probably will die, because the 9- to 20-foot-high flames boiled the sap inside them. Pregnant animals and newborns also are in danger.
"It's not like they can go over the ridge to escape it," Lipps said. "They have to go a mile, so it's been pretty hard on them."
Firefighters reported seeing fires unusual to this part of the country, with very high heat and tall flames.
"We've seen fire behavior here in these fires that's critical ... like you see in conifers in the West," Lipps said.
Lipps and other members of the arson task force prepared to tackle an inch-thick stack of information as they began investigating all three fires. Two of the fires began in ditches by the side of the road.
The task force consists of officers from the Forest Service, the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia State Police and the Craig County Sheriff's Office. They plan to study the scene of each fire, do a ground analysis and interview witnesses. They also ask that anyone with information about any of the fires call the national forest office, (703)265-6054.
Stumps smoldered by the side of Virginia 311 Tuesday where the fire had hit pavement and burned itself out. Smoke hung like fog over the forest floor along Bald Mountain, where the so-called south fire had been 50 percent contained Tuesday.
Firefighters use firebreaks, or lines - either existing unburnable surfaces such as roads and creeks or "hand lines" cut through the forest - to encircle a blaze. Hand lines are 2- to 4-foot swaths cleared by hand of trees and other fuels. The fires either hit the line and burn out, or smaller fires are set from the line back toward the fire to help clear the fuel on the forest floor.
With last winter's ice-storm debris and this spring's dry conditions, the forest floor is as ready as a hibachi for flame. Botetourt County on Monday became the latest locality in the Roanoke area to ban burning.
Tuesday, sawyers such as Ron Nixon of Blacksburg began to cut down overhanging limbs and trees close to the line that could ignite and help the fire jump. Nixon was part of a group called from Virginia Tech over the weekend, many of whom had to go back to class Monday.
Crews of firefighters were bused into the forest in shifts from the Salem Civic Center.
Bob Miller, the on-the-scene information officer, said that while Tuesday's 100 percent relative humidity helped control the fires, it slowed the containment process somewhat.
"Where we've built line, we'd like to go in and burn out the pine needles and leaf litter," he said. "And we can't get it to burn."
by CNB