Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Fires scorch forests but spare homes
Hundreds of firefighters are doing yeoman service in Bedford, Craig and Roanoke counties.
Photo by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
Firefighting crews watch a home on Timberview Road in Roanoke County on Monday night. Crews were still on hand in the neighborhood late Monday to protect property and allow some fires to slowly burn toward the fire line.
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Wildfires had scorched nearly 5,000 acres in Bedford, Craig and Roanoke counties by Monday evening, coming within a few feet of some houses but eventually causing more anxiety than damage for homeowners.
Although the high winds that fanned them Sunday had subsided, the fires continued to spread along dry forest floors, running up steep mountain slopes faster than authorities could chase them.
One hundred Virginia National Guard troops have been called up to assist with the fires in Bedford and Roanoke counties. Forty will be sent to Bedford and 60 to Roanoke. They were expected to arrive at the Roanoke and Bedford armories about 9 a.m. today from Fort Pickett.
The flames came within 5 feet of a house on Timberview Road before firefighters turned them back, Roanoke County Fire and Rescue Department Chief Rick Burch said.
Walls of fire, driven by shifting winds, forced Ron and Kat Johnson to flee their ridgetop home in the same neighborhood Sunday afternoon. They snatched family photographs from the walls, grabbed some important documents and loaded their dog in the car.
Before heading down the mountain, Johnson rolled his five Harley-Davidson motorcycles onto his tennis court, hoping they would somehow survive.
By then, he wasn't so sure about the house.
"She was crying; I was crying. We didn't expect to see the place when we came back," Johnson said.
But Monday afternoon, Johnson was standing in his driveway, looking in amazement at the charred ground that surrounded his $500,000 home. "Everything burned but the house," he said.
Johnson was so grateful to the firefighters that he went back out and bought them a bag full of cheeseburgers.
"I've thanked the firefighters a hundred times over," he said. "They fought it all night long, down to the bitter end."
Although about 45 Roanoke County homes were threatened, none was damaged and none remained in harm's way Monday afternoon.
Almost 100 firefighters from departments across Southwest Virginia spent Monday battling the flames that threatened homes, building backfires they hoped would slow the wildfire's pace and dousing the smoldering landscape from above with water scooped from Carvins Cove reservoir by a helicopter.
Covering more than 2,000 acres, the fire was the largest of several in the region. Nearly 1,000 acres had burned in Bedford County, and another 1,700 acres of mostly national forest land were ablaze in Craig County.
"It's so large, we have what I would call pockets of containment," Burch said of the Roanoke County fire.
The fire, which began as two smaller blazes, stretches from Timberview Road, just north of the intersection of Interstates 81 and 581, to the Carvins Cove area. One fire was caused by downed power lines; the cause of the second remains under investigation.
Other than scorched forestland, the most serious damage to date involves a Jeep that went up in flames. Authorities said the driver got impatient with fire trucks that blocked the road and tried to drive around them.
But the Jeep got stuck in a ditch, and its catalytic converter ignited some leaves. As fire engulfed the Jeep, firefighters were forced to turn their attention away from the brush fire long enough to put down a car fire.
The Bedford County fire, which forced evacuations and had burned nearly 1,000 acres in the Goose Creek Valley area of Montvale, was approximately 10 percent controlled by 4 p.m. Monday, said Janet Blankenship, spokeswoman for the county's fire and rescue services.
Firefighters used backfires Monday to keep the fire from spreading west toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. Crews continued to work to control the fire to the east of Camp Virginia Jaycee.
The fire, burning predominantly national forest land, is believed to have been sparked by an all-terrain vehicle a 16-year-old was operating on a restricted trail, Blankenship said. The U.S. Forest Service is investigating, and Blankenship said it is unclear whether the teenager will face charges.
As a fire that began Saturday evening was fanned by 60 mph winds Sunday, county officials initiated the reverse 911 telephone alert system to contact 500 homes regarding the evacuation.
Jeff and Crystal Goad of Camp Jaycee Road, who were in church when deputies went door to door, left their home early Sunday afternoon.
The couple and their four children packed up belongings and went to stay with friends. Late Sunday, the elder Goads returned to a home without electricity, determined to stay unless the fire returned.
In Craig County, crews assessing a fire near New Castle were awaiting help from more than 100 out-of-state firefighters expected to arrive Monday night, the Forest Service said.
No homes were threatened by the blaze, which is about two miles southeast of New Castle, said public information officer Barbara Walker. The fire started about noon Sunday when a tree fell on a power line, Walker said.
Staff writer Amanda Codispoti contributed to this report.
laurence.hammack@roanoke.com 981-3239
courtney.cutright@roanoke.com 981-3345
