By John Warren Staff Writer
From the April 27 1994 edition of The New Castle Record
Forestry investigators are focusing on the possibility that a person may have started the fire which ravaged 90 acres of the Jefferson National Forest in northeast Botetourt County on Sunday and Monday.
Around 3 p.m. Sunday, firefighters responding to a call from a resident of the area found the forest burning in an area near Pine Mountain, which serves as a geographical boundary between Botetourt and Allegheny counties. A portion of a popular walking path known as “Hoop Hole Trail” passes through the middle of the forestland which was charred in the blaze.
Despite the extensive loss of vegetation, forestry officials were thankful the fire didn’t claim more terrain. The blaze climaxed on Sunday, according to New Castle District Ranger, Robert Boardwine. By Sunday night over 50 foresters and fire fighters from Botetourt and Craig counties had managed to contain the fire.
“If you’d asked me yesterday, I would have said it would right up there with the best of them,” Boardwine said Monday as crews scavenged through the blackened vegetation for signs of remaining flames.
However, Boardwine said, conditions shifted Sunday night in favor of the firefighters. While fires tend to thrive on upwardly sloping landscapes, Sunday’s blaze was halted in its path by the wind.
“There was some unusual fire behavior for that terrain in our favor.” Boardwine said. “This one had the potential to be very serious because of where it is.”
The scene of the fire was most easily accessed by walking 1.5 miles along the recreational trail. A bulldozer which helped form a fire line around the perimeter of the blaze accessed the scene from the Hoop Hole Trail’s entry point of Route 615 vis a more direct makeshift path through the woods.
Sunday night’s effort was also boosted by a helicopter, which sprayed water and dumped 4,000 gallons of flame retardant from air tanks.
According to Jefferson National Forest Public Affairs Director Dave Olsen, conditions were ideal on Sunday afternoon for a fire of large proportions. Temperatures in the high 80’s, 15-20 mile per hour winds and relatively low humidity combined to help the fire spread quickly.
“When you have those combinations, there are excellent conditions for a fire to burn,” Olsen said.
Since there was no heavy machinery being used around hoop Hole at the time the fire started, and because there has been no lightening in the area recently, Olsen said the list of potential causes has been narrowed to “person causes.” The likelihood that ha human started the fire is doubly probable because the area is heavily populated on Sundays.
Olsen predicted a large number of trees will survive the blaze, although the next two weeks will serve as the truest indicator of tree casualties.
Typically, trees destroyed in a fire are essentially gutted. The fire begins burning at the base, and works it way up inside of the tree, making it hollow. With only the outer part of the tree and its bark supporting it, it generally topples within a short period of time.
Some lingering effects from the fire are likely to be seen for quite a while, Olsen said. He said the effects of the blaze will be visible to Hoop Hole Trail hikers for the rest of the summer.
“From a damage standpoint, we’ll begin to see some recovery soon with some rainfall,” Olsen said. “From the standpoint of the way it looked before, it will be several years.”
Boardwine said the Hoop Hole Trail, which is most frequented by hikers in the spring and fall, won’t be closed.
Boardwine said the fire was the worst within the New Castle Ranger District since a blaze four years ago claimed 1,700 acres of forestland near Oriskany. This was the fourth fire in the district this year. The other three were relatively small, the largest having burned about 15 acres.
The 705,000-acre Jefferson National Forest encompasses 22 counties, stretching North to South from Natural Bridge to Wise County and west To Abingdon.
-Prepared by Shelly Koon
