2024-03-22 18:17:55
PETERSBURG, W.Va. — Fires continued to smolder across thousands of acres in a four county region of West Virginia’s Potomac Highlands Friday afternoon. Smoke continued to fill the entire South Branch Valley region, but officials say fire teams were starting to make progress after three days of difficult conditions. With rain the forecast, weary firefighters had an eye skyward.
West Virginia Division of Forestry Director Jeremy Jones said an assist from the West Virginia National Guard had been a huge boost.
“We’re utilizing two National Guard Blackhawk helicopters doing drops. We’re expecting a lot of good progress with that,” said Jones on MetroNews Talkline Friday.
The Blackhawks became available after Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in Hardy, Grant, Hampshire, and Pendleton Counties on Thursday.
“The Guard motto is, ‘Always Ready, Always There’,” stated Maj. Gen. Bill Crane, Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard. “We take that pledge seriously and we are always ready to provide support to our partners at the local and state levels when needed. Our aircrews have extensive experience in helping to combat wildland fires, and we will do all we can to help bring these fires under control to protect lives and property in the impacted communities.”
Personnel and aircraft involved were from Company C, 1-150th Assault Battalion, headquartered in Wheeling, and Company C, 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion headquartered in Parkersburg. Additional Guard personnel and equipment may be deployed based on requests from officials.
The Blackhawks ferried water to be dumped from above on the Grace Mountain Fire which according to Jones covered about 1,600 acres. He added the fire is about 30 percent contained, but expected the Guard’s efforts to put a major dent in the containment process.
A second large fire in Hardy County was the Dove Hollow fire. Jones said they received additional help from the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources who deployed some employees to help on the ground since part of the fire extended into Lost River State Park. According to Jones the fire had consumed 2,950 acres and was about 60 percent contained.
A third major fire in Hardy County was the Capon Fire. Jones didn’t have much information on progress there since it’s being handled by the U.S. Forest Service and fire crews from the Jefferson and George Washington National Forests. The other major fire in the region was the Spring Run Fire which was in Grant County outside of Petersburg and local authorities were working to get it under control.
Jones said he was pleased there were no reports of injury or fatalities as a result of the fires. He also noted there was some property damage, but not nearly to the level he expected earlier in the week.
“We only lost eight residential structures in this four-county area, which I thought it was going to be higher than that and it still may. We’ve probably lost a couple dozen other structures like out buildings, campers and stuff like that,” he said.
Volunteer fire fighters were successful in protecting a housing development which had fire lapping at the edge of yards on Thursday. Fire lines were built and crews were able to save the structures from any significant damage.
“There’s probably 30 to 40 state folks and I couldn’t tell you how many volunteer fire fighters are here from all over. I ran into a guy this morning from Doddridge County,” he said.
The National Weather Service forecasted rainfall in the region Friday night into Saturday. Some of the rain could be significant with up to an inch of rain possible. Jones said that kind of soaking rain would be a huge help and although it wouldn’t put out the fires it would enable crews to get the upper hand and contain them.
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