Fires start, spread easily
in current conditions
By Angela H. Hill
Patrick County issued a county-wide burning ban Tuesday, Nov. 15, declaring a local emergency due to the extremely dry weather conditions. Issued in response to conditions that create an extreme fire danger, the Declaration of Emergency Due to Dry Weather Conditions was issued under the Code of Virginia, and establishes a ban on all open-air burning until further notice.
The ban applies to public and private property, and remains in effect until Patrick County receives enough precipitation to reduce the danger of fire. At the Wednesday night Stuart Town Council meeting, the council passed a similar ban that applies to all public and private property within the town limits.
“Outside of cigarettes and cigars and pipes—in your mouth—don’t burn anything,” said Stuart Town Attorney Chris Corbett at the meeting. Saturday, the Virginia Dept. of Forestry’s fire-danger rating for the area was a Category 3, Level 3, which is the highest rating.
Throughout last week and weekend, county fire personnel responded to a handful of small fires in roadside ditches. Those fires were most likely caused by lit cigarettes tossed by motorists, and were quickly extinguished.
Randy Burge, CCDF fire chief, said that even the small fires were reignited by wind, showing how quickly fire grows in these conditions. “It might be little to begin with, but in mere minutes it’s 2, 3, 4 acres,” Burge said.
On Sunday, a brush fire burned for about five hours through a 3-acre stretch off Brushy Mountain Road near the Dry Pond area. Burge said officials were unsure whether it was started by a lit cigarette or an electric fence.
Responding to the Brushy Mountain Road fire were 13 firefighters with five pieces of equipment from CCDF; eight personnel with three trucks from Francisco Station in Stokes County, N.C.; six personnel with three trucks from Four Way Company in Surry County, N.C.; Patrick County Emergency Services Coordinator Steve Allen; and Virginia Dept. of Forestry Warden Jason McGee. The dispatch call was placed at around 10 a.m.
“The wind turned on that one and kept that from being worse than it was,” Burge said, “but it was still a pretty significant fire and due to terrain and fuels, it could have broken and run and we would have had 15 to 20 acres involved.”
Burge cautions residents to be particularly mindful right now of electric fences and hot woodstove ash. He recommends letting ash cool in a metal bucket for three days before dumping it. If the bucket needs to be dumped sooner, wet down the ashes, he said.
Another thing to watch this time of year is auxiliary heat sources, such as electric and kerosene heaters and woodstoves. On Saturday at around 2 p.m., a kerosene heater malfunctioned and caught fire inside a home on Creasey’s Chapel Road.
Burge said the homeowners used good judgment and quickly turned off the stove, hit the flames with an extinguisher and put out the fire before fire personnel arrived.
“It’s getting cool enough now to use wood stoves and kerosene heaters and things we don’t use all the time to heat the house, and they have malfunctioned,” Burge said. “And if it’s too close to a couch, or a bed or draperies, all it takes is one little bit and you’ve got problems.”
