Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LURAY LENGTH: Medium
State Forestry Department officials said they suspect arson as the cause of at least two of the fires.
The largest fire, in Page County, burned more than 200 acres by Tuesday afternoon, said Lou Southard, a spokesman for the department in Charlottesville. Investigators suspect that fire was set.
Winds reaching 40 mph fanned flames that consumed underbrush felled by an ice storm in the winter of 1994. Flames shot as high as 50 feet as the fire moved toward about 15 houses in the Shenandoah Gap vacation settlement, Southard said.
``Trees and branches are piled on the forest floor like jackstraws,'' he said.
Bulldozers helped clear a firebreak between the houses and the approaching fire Tuesday afternoon. Nevertheless, about 40 firefighters remained on duty nearby in case the fire leaped the clearing.
The floors of many forests have become virtual tinder boxes as a result of limbs that have dried and seasoned more than a year, Southard said. He said fires under such conditions will be much more dangerous and destructive than usual.
``We predict fires this year will burn eight times hotter and burn three times as much acreage,'' Southard said.
The Forestry Department has issued special warnings against open fires, and used a federal grant to buy 10 specially equipped military transport vehicles that gained fame for service in Operation Desert Storm to help fight fires in forested areas. The vehicles, Humvees, were the Army's successor to the jeep.
One of the four Humvees Virginia forestry officials have received was used Tuesday in Page County.
Arson is suspected in another small fire Tuesday afternoon in Page County, Southard said.
Later Tuesday afternoon, fires were reported in Rockingham and Nelson counties, Southard said.
Southard said the Nelson County fire was on about 30 acres of privately owned woodland.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.