ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 8, 1997 TAG: 9704080079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER
Firefighters planned to widen their line Monday night, fighting fire with fire.
Forestry officials think lightning may have started the forest fire that broke out Saturday night in Rockbridge County. They hoped to have it under control by the end of today.
Fire investigators found few clues at Three Sisters Knobs, a remote area of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests near Glasgow where they say the fire started, said David Olson, a fire information officer for the U.S. Forest Service.
The investigators' best educated guess is that during a thunderstorm last week, lightning struck the area and a fire smoldered for several days, he said.
The fire has burned more than 250 acres - two-thirds of it national forest land - but no structures have been threatened. Wind and dry air stirred up the fire Monday and crossed parts of the fire line for a while, Olson said.
Firefighers planned to "burn out" the untouched land between the fire line and the wildfire Monday night, Olson said. The controlled burn was expected to take four to six hours and should have in essence expanded the fire line from a few feet across to several hundred feet.
LENGTH: Short : 32 linesby CNB