Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504110048
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Dry conditions, high winds and downed limbs from last year's ice storms caused officials in Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski Counties and Radford to ban fires Friday. Floyd County had already done so.
"We are concerned, very concerned," said Jim Laignel, fire management officer for the Blacksburg Ranger District of the Jefferson National Forest. "You could drop a cigarette and I guarantee you it'll start a fire."
Officials say cigarettes and cigars have indeed been the cause of several fires in the valley in recent days. Power lines brought down by high winds have caused others.
Meteorologists report that precipitation was two inches below normal in March in Roanoke and three-quarters of an inch below normal so far in April. But such a drop is not unusual, especially in the springtime.
"We're not in any means in a drought. It's just that in the last 30 days or so it's been two inches below normal," said a meteorologist in the National Weather Service's Blacksburg office.
The last significant rain was March 20, when three-10ths of an inch fell. Since then a total a two-10ths of an inch have fallen, an insignificant amount that means limbs and leaves are bone dry, forestry officials say.
Relief may be in the forecast. Showers may occur in the middle of next week and humidity levels have been creeping up, to 40 percent in recent days.
But until a soaking rain occurs, fire officials are warning everyone to be careful.
The danger exists not just in forests, where branches and leaves are now brittle underfoot, but in residential areas as well, they say.
A cigarette ignited mulch beside a house in Shawsville on Thursday, burning the side of the dwelling, said Charlie Yopp, Montgomery County's chief fire warden, who happened to be on patrol nearby when he saw the smoke. He was able to put the blaze out before the fire department arrived, but Yopp said the incident just goes to show how dry it is.
Yopp recommends that people who have mulch beside their homes soak it at least once a week.
"Normally a cigarette won't start a fire like that, but with the low humidity and high winds, everything works together. It doesn't take much [to start a fire] at this time of year."
Until it rains, public awareness is the best fire-prevention tool, Yopp said.
Elsewhere in recent days in the valley larger fires have occurred.
The leftover ashes from a small trash fire flared on Monday when winds picked up and burned 10 acres, said J.C. Clark, an area forester for the state Department of Forestry, the agency that coordinates forest fire suppression efforts in areas outside of national forests.
Clark said six full-time employees for the forestry department supervise the response of volunteer firefighters and others. They mostly use hand tools, because fires often strike hard-to-reach areas. But a 10-acre Montgomery County fire forced forestry officials to call in a helicopter March 18.
This weekend, the U.S. Forest Service will have a 20-member crew on call.
"That's how bad we think it is," said Laignel at the Blacksburg ranger office.
As dry as it is in the New River Valley, the northern Shenandoah valley has been hit harder. Fires there have burned close to 1,000 acres recently.
by CNB