Forest Fire Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Governor Issues Outdoor Burning Ban

To reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires due to drought, Gov. Jim Justice has banned all outdoor burning throughout West Virginia, effective Monday, April 17, 2023.

Dry and windy weather conditions expected in the coming days and an increasing potential for forest fires prompted the move. The National Weather Service – Charleston issued a Special Weather Statement for a High Fire Danger Threat.

The ban will be in effect until conditions improve and the governor rescinds the order by further proclamation.

The order makes it unlawful for any person in the state to engage in outdoor burning, including fires built for camping, the burning of debris, or warming.

The following items are excluded from the restrictions:

Fires for the purpose of chemical production, where fire is essential to operation.
Fires for commercial land-clearing, such as mining, highway construction, and development provided that a permit is obtained from the Division of Forestry prior to burning.
Training fires conducted under the direct control and supervision of qualified instructors at a training facility operated by a fire department or government entity provided that a permit is obtained from the Division of Forestry prior to burning.
Fires for outdoor cooking conducted for fund-raising events and charitable organizations provided that a water source capable of extinguishing the fire is present and a permit is obtained from the Division of Forestry prior to the operation.
Liquid fueled gas grills, lanterns or liquid-fueled gas fire stoves.

Justice has instructed the Division of Forestry to enact a forest fire readiness plan and to enforce the ban on burning as outlined in W.Va. Code §20-1-1, et seq.

“This year, we have experienced a significant period of low humidity and below average rainfall,” Acting West Virginia Division of Forestry Director and State Forester Tony Evans said. “Since Jan. 1, we have experienced 654 different fires in the state, and a current total of 4,121 acres burned. This ban helps ensure we are doing everything we can to protect the public, our forests, and private property from the damage that can occur from a forest fire.”

The order directs the Division of Forestry and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to provide continuous information to the governor and the public regarding forest conditions.

Additionally, the proclamation orders the Division of Natural Resources, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the Department of Homeland Security, and the State Police to cooperate in the enforcement of this ban.

View the full proclamation.

W.Va. Division Of Forestry Worker Killed Fighting Brush Fire

A worker with the West Virginia Division of Forestry was killed Thursday while fighting a forest fire in Fayette County.

The forestry worker, 28-year-old Cody J. Mullens of Mt. Hope in Fayette County, died after a tree fell on him while fighting a fire near Montgomery.

Mullens was part of a response unit called to fight a brush fire along Route 61 in Armstrong Creek.

In a statement, Gov. Jim Justice called Mullen’s death a tragedy.

“Cathy and I are heartbroken by the tragic news of losing one of our own,” Justice said. “Our state foresters are some of the most dedicated workers in our state, putting their lives on the line to protect our communities from wildfires, and we owe them all, especially Cody, an enormous debt of gratitude.”

Monongahela National Forest Prepares For Prescribed Burn Season

Staff at the Monongahela National Forest are preparing to conduct prescribed burns in the area through June.

Prescribed burns are planned fires meant to maintain a forest’s health and prevent overgrowth. They help improve habitats by removing invasive species, recycling nutrients into the soil and providing forage for wild game. It also helps to prevent more dangerous wildfires.

“What we’re doing is we’re trying to reestablish fire’s natural role in forest ecosystems,” Monongahela National Forest Fire and Fuel Planner Conor Shanahan said.

The areas scheduled for prescribed burns include units in Pendleton, Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties, totaling 1,251 acres.

The areas include:

Big Mountain Unit 9 and 10 in Pendleton County
Chestnut Ridge North/South Savanna Units 1 and 2 in Pocahontas County
Hopkins Units A, B and C in Greenbrier County
Brushy Mountain Units B2, B4 and B6 in Greenbrier County

These areas will be closed off during the day of the burn, and may be closed during the few days after for public safety.

“Our burns might be seen by the public but usually we post signs on roads the day of or the day before burning,” Shanahan said. “People may see or smell smoke, but besides that, they wouldn’t really have much encounters with any of our burning corps or fire.”

No specific dates have been announced as burns are scheduled for days with specific weather conditions and could be delayed because of temperature, humidity, smoke dispersion and wind.

Information and maps about the burnings will be available online when they begin.

National Guard Deploys Helicopter To Help Fight Brush Fire

The National Guard has deployed to help fight a 200 acre brush fire in Fayette County.

Five National Guard members departed from Wheeling Thursday morning in a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter with hoist capability to help fight a brushfire near the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

“They haul what’s called a Bambi bucket,” said Commanding General of the West Virginia National Guard Bill Crane. “That Bambi bucket can hold about 550 gallons of water.”

Crane said the helicopter allows for a quick response to a fire threatening homes and lives in rough terrain, not easily accessed by ground crews.

“Part of it is you have the proximity to residents, so being that close to Fayetteville, certainly we want to make sure that we get in there to protect the lives and homes,” he said.

This is the first time the National Guard has been requested to provide aerial support for a wildland fire in the state, but the guard members have undergone extensive training in Bambi bucket operations over the past few years and completed refresher training this past summer.

“We always try to help our sister states as much as possible, and so we wanted to train and make sure we were prepared to do that,” Crane said.

A brush fire last December burned under 150 acres in the New River Gorge National Park, but did not require National Guard intervention.

Park Service Uses Fire To Fight Fire — Even In W.Va.

The Western United States is suffering through heatwaves and long-term droughts, raising fears of more out-of-control wildfires burning hundreds of thousands of acres this year. That is on top of record breaking wildfire seasons in recent years.

West Virginia is the third most forested state in the nation, and second in standing hardwoods like maple and oak, according to the National Association of State Foresters. According to a 2016 survey from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, approximately 78 percent of the state’s total land area is made up of forest land.

Smoke rolls upward from a prescribed burn in Grandview in Raleigh County.

For years, the National Park Service and the forest service put out every fire in the forests as quickly as they could. But they have since learned there is a better way.

Aaron Kendall is the fire management officer for the Monongahela National Forest. He says the forest service has multiple fire units with different goals in mind, depending on where they work.

“Some of them are more towards wildlife or just the diversity of the forest itself,” he said. “And then some of them are to reduce fuel loading, you know, to hopefully prevent the spread of a catastrophic wildfire. It’s a balance.”

Kendall noted that while forest fire risk in West Virginia is not nearly as high as it is in the West, it varies within the state.

“Here in the Elkins area, we have a lot of rain, and so it’s a little less likely to have some type of wildfire,” he said. “But you go just a little bit to the east of us, on the other side of the ridge over towards Petersburg, or White Sulphur Springs on that side of the forest, and it’s a different story. They don’t get nearly as much precipitation. The fire danger can change more rapidly down there.”

Today, the approach has more to do with fires in proximity to houses and buildings.

“You get more and more people moving into what was more of a wild area,” Bieri said. “If you don’t burn those areas, you’ve got to put fires out when they’re close to people’s homes so it just increases that risk.”

A National Park Service firefighter emerges from the smoke during the prescribed burn at Grandview.

Fires set intentionally are called prescribed fires. The park service has a “prescription” or a plan for the fire. The recent prescribed fire at Carper Fields at Grandview was for habitat protection.

“That’s a burn that we do for habitat maintenance and restoration,” Bieri said. “It’s to basically burn out the woody shrubs and invasive species to help maintain a native grassland habitat for wildlife.”

Both Bieri and Kendall worked in western states for the park service before coming to West Virginia. Bieri says we do have some of the same problems Western states face.

“We definitely have the urban interface in terms of people living in forested areas around the park. But we luckily don’t have the fire danger as extreme as it is in places out west,” he said.

On the other hand, Bieri brought up the fires that hit the Great Smoky Mountains in 2016.

“That was a major urban interface issue that burned down quite a lot of homes and businesses around the Gatlinburg area. It’s not just a Western problem, it can certainly happen in the East,” he said.

The overall fire danger in West Virginia is moderate right now, but it can increase in the dry fall months when leaves are falling and trees are dried out.

Pendleton County Fire Slowing In Monongahela National Forest

Wet, cool conditions are helping to slow a wildfire in Pendleton County that broke out on Thanksgiving.

The Dry Hollow Fire was first reported early Thursday in the Monongahela National Forest near the community of Upper Tract.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the fire has burned nearly 1,300 acres of both public and privately-owned land. The fire is burning with low to moderate intensity, which is beneficial for some forest species regeneration, including oaks and Table Mountain pine, the agency said.

No structures are threatened. The fire is about 60 percent contained and Forest Service Spokesperson Kelly Bridges said the agency expects fewer firefighters will be needed Tuesday.

Burned areas remain closed to the public. The cause of the fire is under investigation. You can find the lastest on the fire here.