Spring Fire Season

Fall fire season is always the worst, but spring can be pretty awful when it is dry and warm. Like last Friday. We got back from chores in town and a fire truck passed after we parked at my mom’s. And then other trucks. The woods were on fire.

The fire was on the ridge west of us. It had been windy all day, hot and dry. A truck parking on tall grass managed to set it on fire and that was the start.

To fight the fire they brought in fire trucks from Poca, Sissonville and Bancroft. A gas well was in the center of the fire area. If the well had been venting to the tank at the time there might have been an explosion.

By the time I got to the fire they’d already contained the fire and had begun the long process of mopping up. There were still hot spots burning and areas near the firebreak that needed to be checked.

The firebreak is in the center of the photo. They used leaf blowers to clear a wide swath of leaves. A hot spot is in the background. There was a stump burning and just past that a dead pine.

The fire is being put out using water but since the tree if it fell would cross the firebreak, they cut it down.

The area burned was 12-15 acres. On Saturday a crew returned to the site and burned leaves within the contained area so that there would be nothing to catch fire again.

That was too close for comfort. The way the wind was blowing and the closeness of the fire had everyone on the ridge worried.

March 18, 2014