Fire Shuts Down Part of Parkway
posted 11:50 pm Wed March 26, 2008 - Augusta Co., VA
reporter: Margaret Clevenstine
posted by: Webteam
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1,000 acres in a little over 24 hours -- that's how quickly a forest fire has spread in the St. Mary's Wilderness area. We were at one of the command posts Wednesday in Augusta County.
Wind has been a big obstacle for fire fighters and that's what forestry officials say caused the fire to quadruple in size since Tuesday. We could see the smoke from miles away. It was so thick in parts, a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway had to be shut down.
Fire fighters inspected the area today by helicopter. They used the information they collected to form a plan which they'll put into operation Thursday morning.
One good thing, there are no homes or buildings in the area of the fire, it's total wilderness. But the desolate terrain also poses a challenge for fire fighters.
Chris Rose, U.S. Forestry Department - "It's rough terrain and you don't want to send people in when we can't get them out quickly in case something goes wrong or if you have an injury."
Forestry officials don't have any idea how the fire started. But they want to remind people that although you can burn here in Virginia after 4:00pm, it's been so dry and windy, they ask people to hold off on burning any brush.
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