Five large wildfires and many more small ones are burning more than 7,000 acres across the Commonwealth today. While the bulk of the large fires are on U.S. Forest Service land, the Virginia Department of Forestry, USFS, National Park Service along with numerous volunteer fire departments are out in force battling the blazes to protect lives and property.
“We’ve seen a tremendous uptick in fire activity today,” said John Miller, VDOF’s director of resource protection. “It would be fair to say that all 180 of our wildland firefighters are involved in suppression efforts today, and resources are at or near capacity.”
A combination of high winds, low humidity and no precipitation has enabled the wildfires to grow and spread quickly. Many of the fires are on steep, rocky terrain making it difficult for firefighters to reach the flames.
From NBC 29 News: https://www.nbc29.com/story/17380422/wildfires-burning-7000-acres-in-virginia