Dry weather has forestry officials bracing for worst season since 2000
By Justin D. Anderson
Charleston Daily Mail
Copyright 2007 Charleston Newspapers
CHARLESTON, W. Va. — The dry weather has West Virginia forestry officials preparing for what they say could be the worst season of wildfires since 2000, when hundreds of fires scorched Southern West Virginia over the course of a week.
The National Weather Service predicts a number of the state’s counties — especially those in the lowlands along the Ohio River — are headed for a drought.
Several counties, including Kanawha, are considered hot zones for wildfires even during years with normal precipitation, state forester Randy Dye said.
“If we don’t get some rain, the fall fire season can be extremely bad,” Dye said.
Dye said circumstances are stacking up for a total ban on outdoor burning.
State officials are expected to convene later this month to make a plan for the fall fire season, which runs from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31.
The spring fire season runs from March 1 through May 31.
During those months, there are limits on when people can burn trash outdoors.
Last year, a total of 1,022 wildfires burned 17,608 acres.
As of June 8, 466 forest fires had been reported so far this year, destroying 3,727 acres of public and private land.
Dye said the number of fires this year has been average. But the dry weather has caused this spring’s wildfires - which usually do less damage than those in the fall fire season - to be larger than usual.
Forty-one percent of the fires this year occurred in the forestry district that includes Kanawha, Boone, Cabell and Lincoln counties.
Dye said these counties are part of a larger area notorious for wildfires, particularly started by arsonists.
“For some reason, we have the biggest problem in the southern part of the state,” Dye said.
So far this year, 31 percent of wildfires were started by arson, according to state data. People burning brush or garbage accounted for 36 percent of the fires. Campfires were blamed for only 2 percent.
Three years ago, arson accounted for the large majority of wildfires, Dye said. But increased enforcement has curtailed that some.
Forestry officials have a number of resources to use when gearing up for a potentially bad fire season.
In addition to the state’s 106 wildfire-fighting personnel available if things get bad in the fall, there also are about 100 corrections inmates trained in fire suppression techniques, Dye said.
“When the woods are on fire, we need a lot of extra help and that’s where we get it,” Dye said.
The program to use inmates as firefighters started about three years ago, but the state hasn’t yet had occasion to really put it to the test.
The West Virginia National Guard would also be available to help by setting up field kitchens to feed firefighters and to transport the inmates to the scenes of the fires.
Usually, the state contracts two airplanes that fly over the state scouting for wildfires. This year, depending on the weather, the state could contract four scouting planes.
The state also has a Huey helicopter on standby in Logan that would be used to drop big buckets of water on wildfires, Dye said.