Fire burning near mountain in Botetourt Co.

WSLS News Staff
Published: June 19, 2008

Updated 5:43 p.m.

By Mollie Halpern

Smoke billows from a 125 acre forest fire between Stone Coal Gap and Caldwell Mountain.

It’s a rare sight—since it’s so late in the fire season.

The U.S. Forest Service says a lightning strike likely sparked the flames.

Cindy Schiffer, a District Ranger with the .U.S. Forest Service says, “The ground normally is green and lush this part of the year but it’s very dry on the surface so that’s a big part of it.“

Bill Witt owns 100 acres just about a mile below the fire line.  And he’s keeping a close eye on the fire.  Witt says, “It’s a little scary, if there’s a major wind shift we could be in trouble here.“

A 15-member U.S. Forest Service crew is using bulldozers to clear miles and miles of containment lines, so the low-lying flames don’t spread.

Getting enough resources to fight this fire is proving to be difficult since u.s. forest crews area fighting fires in eastern Virginia and North Carolina. The hope is that ground crews and a helicopter will be available by Saturday.

When crews arrive, they’ll fight fire with fire, a method called “backburning.“

“So what we try to do is widen those control lines by intentionally lighting fires next to them in a low intensity way with little flames that makes an areas with no fuel on it so that when the fire hits it it just dies out it has no fuel to consume,“ says Schiffer.

If the plan works, the Forest Service doesn’t expect it to do so until July 4th weekend.

Until then, they and landowners like Bill Witt, wait for additional crews, and hope for rain.

The U.S. Forest Service says this type of low-intensity fire is actually cleaning the forest floor.

That will prevent forest fires there during the next fire season.

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The U.S. Forest Service says fire crews are working it as a “wildland fire for resource benefit.“  That means crews will set containment lines, and let the fire burn itself out.  The Forest Service hopes this will help the forest in the future by burning out dense brush.

The Forest Service also cites steep, rough terrain, old coal mines, and limited road access as being a danger to the safety of fire crews.

Currently, an Augusta hotshot crew, a helicopter, and crews using bulldozers are working the fire.

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The U.S. Forest Service says the fire has grown from 25 to 125 acres

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The U.S. Forest Service believes a lightning strike sparked a fire that’s burning near Caldwell Mountain in Botetourt County.

Chris Rose with the Forest Service says the Stone Coal fire is burning 25 acres in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

The Forest Service says in the past two weeks, lighting strikes have sparked six fires in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.  Of those six, three are out and three are still burning.  Moist, green plants and recent rains have helped keep the fires small.

Taken by WSLS viewer Steven Hamblin

Taken by WSLS viewer Steven Hamblin