Ramble On

Friday, November 5, 2010

GWNF/Massanutten Fire - Final

Yesterday's Page News & Courier had a story on the fire I've been tracking for the last two weeks.  Along with an interview with the USFS Fire Zone Manager, the article, linked below, includes a little more detail about why this fire - officially known as the Lokey Hollow Fire - has been so difficult to put out. 

Apparently with the leaves still in the process of falling, this fire is constantly getting more fuel so that the hotspots can reignite.  While there has been some rain during the course of the fire, once the leaves fall, if there is a short dry spell, they can quickly get to the state where they will spark flames.  Another problem is smoldering tree stumps and trunks, which is still an active part of the fire long after it has been brought under control.

So PNC has it that the fire is 75% contained after burning approximately 600 acres.  Up to 50 firefighters, who came from as far away as California and Montana, were involved in fighting the blaze.  On Tuesday afternoon, PNC's press time, about 20 were still on the scene, mainly watching the roads which were used as fire breaks during this course of this one.

Unless this fire breaks out into something much larger, we'll call this the last post on it.  You can check out the previous Lokey Hollow posts by clicking the "GWNF Fires" label that follows this post.

Link to PNC article:  http://www.dailynews-record.com/pnc_details.php?AID=51928&CHID=42

1 comment:

Unknown said...

hey Jim, we've got two new fires on the M mtn.
One at Kennedy Peak and one at the 211 gap.