CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A second crew from the West Virginia Division of Forestry has deployed to Minnesota to help tame a couple of forest fires happening there during drought conditions.
The first team left July 31 for Ely, Minnesota and just returned. A second Mountain State crew was deployed August 10th to the city of Bemidji and remains on the fire line.
“It’s pretty rare for us to send any resources to Minnesota. I do believe we sent a crew there maybe 25 years ago.” said Jeremy Jones, fire staff assistant for the West Virginia Division of Forestry.
The ten person crews are made up of a blend of Division of Forestry personnel and other individuals specially trained and hired by the U.S. Forest Service to complete a qualified fire fighting crew.
Typically West Virginia’s fire teams are deployed to California, Montana, and other western states to assist crews battling massive wildfires across those states. Jones said that may still happen.
“They are begging for resources and when our crews are posted as available they could potentially be sent out there, but they were needed in the eastern area so they ordered them up first,” he explained.
The entire western United States is battling extreme drought conditions which is making this year’s fire season much worse. The western drought was blamed for the Minnesota fire as well.
Since July 1, five fires have burned 15 acres in West Virginia. Even though our state isn’t in a fire season, it’s still very important to be safe and abide by burning guidelines: https://t.co/laUbHw6FMS#OnlyYOU can prevent forest fires! pic.twitter.com/yRN9jh3EZu
— WV Forestry (@WVForestry) July 21, 2021
Back here in West Virginia the fall forest fire season starts October 1 and there were concerns about West Virginia’s conditions until the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred moved in this week. A fire broke out Sunday in Pendleton County just south of Petersburg which Jones said was directly blamed on the weather.
“That was caused by a lightening strike which is very, very rare for West Virginia. Essentially all of our fires are human caused, so that was a really unique situation,” he said.
Crews reached the fire in the remote and rugged terrain, but it was so dry the fire moved through the ground and under the fire line crews were able to build. Subsequent rains this week helped stop the fire.