Much-needed showers Monday left state foresters cautiously optimistic in their battle against a rash of wildfires that have ignited across East Tennessee over the past two weeks.
Scattered showers in Anderson and Campbell counties added firefighters’ ongoing efforts at the scenes of three suspected arsons, including a blaze that has burned more than 500 acres off Westbourne Road in northeast Campbell County, said Nathan Waters, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s Forestry Division.
Rain also fell on a 165-acre fire burning in a woodland area off Ivydale Road near LaFollette.
“I have high hopes that the rain got all the way across the district,” Waters said Monday night. “And hopefully the humidity will be up Tuesday, with the rain today.”
Firefighting crews also managed to finish cutting containment lines around both wildfires through back-firing — a process of setting smaller blazes at natural or man-made fire breaks to reduce flammable material.
From KnoxNews.com: https://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/nov/26/campbell-wildfires-rage-as-conditions-worsen/