The Shenandoah Lands Run Fire

As we were making our drive to Hawksbill Cabin for Presidents’ Day weekend, it was a challenge to keep the car on course with the buffeting winds on I-66. There were gusts of up to 60 miles per hour on Saturday, as most of the Mid-Atlantic region knows. Besides the dangers on the roads, the winds were causing havoc in another way, fanning brush fires in the region so that they could quickly get out of control – there were reports of problems across the state of Virginia, and I’ve been hearing about problems in Maryland from friends who live there too.


It’s something of an irony here on the blog, as I am in the middle of a two-parter on last fall’s fires in the GWNF. I’ll post the second of these write-ups tomorrow.

As Mary and I approached Flint Hill on our drive, we noticed a big fire up on the Blue Ridge. By the time we reached the little town, we were driving through clouds of smoke. This fire, called the Smith Run fire, started in Warren County, apparently in the Browntown area, and by Saturday night already had burned 2,000 acres. The fire photos I have here are from the Shenandoah 75th Anniversary Facebook page, which said these images are between the 10-14 mileposts on Skyline Drive. The Drive itself was closed in the North District.

Page County had another fire to deal with – I am still gathering details, but I know that it had a large share of our local volunteer fire fighters occupied. Probably due to the danger, highlighted by this fire, we received a robo-call advising that open-air burning (a large number of Page County residents still burn their trash, and many of the getaways have fire pits – like we do at HC) wasn’t allowed given weather conditions. Here is a photo of the advisory that was posted in front of the Luray firehouse.

The fire operation for the Blue Ridge fire is complex, and since there are several other large fires in the public lands around the Valley, especially near Harrisonburg, they’ve put together a task force under the title of the “Valley Complex Fire.” The other component fires are the Pickle Branch, Chestnut Ridge and Coffman Fires. Crews from the National Park Service, the Monongahela National Forest and Asheville Interagency Hotshots continue to work the fire, along with engines from the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. While no structures in the Park are threatened, local fire services are assigned to protect private property structures; these include the Warren County Department of Fire and Rescue Services, Rappahannock County Volunteer Fire Departments, and Virginia Department of Forestry continue to provide structural fire protection on private property. (this information from the NPS site)

The SNP fire will likely burn for the rest of the week. There are back burns and burn outs in the works to make sure that it stays under control. While we had a bit of rain and snow last night, these were not enough to put the fire out.

Some of the trail areas that are affected include:

• Mt. Marshall Trail from Skyline Drive to the intersection at the Bluff Trail;
• Appalachian Trail between Compton Gap and the Browntown Trail;
• Lands Run Gap Fire Road; and
• Jenkins Gap Trail.

I’ll keep an eye on the news for additional information and post it as I get it.