CABINS, W.Va. — The deluge of rain which started Sunday and stretched into Monday morning across West Virginia caused problems with small stream flooding, but it was the perfect solution to a forest fire burning in the Monongahela National Forest in Grant County.
“We got three inches of rain on that fire, so it’s pretty much done,” said Kelly Bridges, Public Information Officer for the Monongahela National Forest. “We’ll have staff out there monitoring things for most of the next of this week.”
The blaze, named the “Castle Fire” by the U.S. Forest Service, was first noticed about 10 a.m. Saturday in the Smoke Hole section of Grant County about eight miles south of Petersburg. A cause for the fire remained under investigation on Monday. U.S. Forest Service officials estimate the fire consumed about 330 acres of forest land as crews worked to bring it under control ahead of the rain.
At one point about 75 fire fighters were involved in the effort to put out the fire, but with the heavy rain which saturated the region, about ten specialists from the U.S. Forest Service will monitor the fire for the duration of the week.