By Nicolas Zimmerman
The Daily Press (Newport News, Va)

GLOUCESTER, Va. — Fires swept through Guinea this weekend, with Gloucester firefighters extinguishing four blazes in just more than 36 hours, said Herb Austin, assistant fire chief for Abingdon Volunteer Fire Co.

Blazes destroyed a vacant home on Smiley Road, a shed behind a home on Guinea Circle and about 35 acres of brush, all between Friday night and Sunday afternoon, Austin said. No one was injured in the fires, which are a regular, if irksome, annual spring occurrence in the lowlands east of Route 17.

Firefighters responded shortly after 8 p.m. Friday to a report of a fire in the vacant home at 2939 Smiley Road. The house, which Austin said had been abandoned since Hurricane Isabel, was a total loss. He said the fire resembled eight to 10 others that have destroyed hurricane-damaged homes in the Jenkins Neck and Severn areas over the last five or so years.

"Given the fact that it was in an area where there have been other similar fires, I'd say the investigation is still open," Austin said. "Right now, I'd call the cause of the fire 'undetermined.'"

A shed behind the house showed signs of being used recently as a "hang-out," he said.

A few hours later, firefighters put out a small brush fire in Jenkins Neck and the blaze that destroyed a shed behind a home at 2661 Guinea Circle. Then on Sunday afternoon, a fire scorched 25 acres between Perrin Creek Road and Sandfiddler Lane.

Guinea's annual fires are blamed on everything from wild asparagus hunters to spontaneously combusting swamp gases. Most, including Austin, agree they're no accident.

"Every spring, there are 12- and 13-year-olds down in Guinea who are experiencing urges of uncontrolled testosterone, and they seem to spend it setting fire to the marshes," Austin said. "They do it because their dads did it."