April 13--Crews fighting major Southwest Virginia wildfires are now battling blazes that, collectively, have reached historic proportions -- and have led officials to close some surrounding areas to the public.
"Right now, when you look at the entire George Washington National Forest, we have 20,000 acres on fire," said Pat Sheridan, head ranger for the Warm Springs and James River district of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.
"The largest fire prior to this might've been something approaching 5,000 acres," Sheridan added. "Now we have numerous fires all at one time."
The three largest fires near the Roanoke area -- at Alleghany Tunnels, Rich Hole and Barbours Creek -- all grew significantly between Wednesday and Thursday.
The fire at Alleghany Tunnels, about 10 miles west of Covington, increased from 6,000 acres to more than 7,650; Rich Hole, 17 miles east of Covington, went from 1,000 to 3,670 acres; and the Barbours Creek fire expanded from 1,750 to almost 2,700 acres, officials reported.
A fourth fire, sparked by lightning and burning on Cove Mountain near Arcadia in Botetourt County, has for the past two days stayed the same size, at 57 acres, forest spokeswoman JoBeth Brown said Thursday.
Crews are also fighting two wilderness fires covering an estimated 7,000 acres in Rockingham County in Virginia and Hardy County in West Virginia.
Officials on Thursday also closed off public areas near the fires.
"We've implemented closures around each of the wildfires for all of the public. It's obviously for safety reasons," Brown said. "Anything adjacent to the fires is going to be closed. Anything around a wildfire."
Brown said the specific closings would be mapped on the Forest Service's website, but those updates were still in progress Thursday evening.
Sheridan also said firefighters in the second half of the week were seeing slight breaks from the weather, with still-low humidity levels climbing just a little higher and winds diminishing somewhat.
Humidity below 30 percent is considered low for the area, he said.
"We've seen humidity as low as 10 to 12 percent. It makes the air that much drier," Sheridan said.
That dryness and the high winds have proved a destructive combination.
"It's one of the worst combinations you can have," Sheridan said.
The more cooperative winds on Wednesday and Thursday proved more conducive for firefighters to use helicopters to drop water on the flames, forest service spokesman Alan Craft said.
He said it was still too early to speculate on the causes of the fires, which were under investigation, but he said the primary goal of the crews was to fight the fires and brace for conditions ahead.
"Expect the humidity to get lower and the wind to increase by the weekend," Craft said.
Of the three major fires in the area, the only one threatening buildings was the fire in the Barbours Creek Wilderness.
"We are concentrating our efforts on the area of the fire toward private property," said spokeswoman Barb Walker at the New Castle Work Station.
In a news release Thursday, Walker said that four residences northeast of the fire had been secured.
The nearby Potts Mountain Jeep Trail and Pines Campground have been closed, Walker said.
ONLINE: To see maps of the portions of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests that have been closed, go to http://tinyurl.com/5wkxtmk.
Copyright 2012 - The Roanoke Times, Va.
