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Recovery from Rocky Mountain Fire Begins in Shenandoah

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With rain still falling and heavy fog surrounding the Shenandoah National Park, firefighters took a break, announcing that the blaze is largely contained and many of the trees have survived. 

  Firefighters and support personnel seemed relieved as they stopped for snacks, bottled water, coffee and conversation.  Park Superintendent Jim Northup, who has battled dozens of forest fires in other parks over the last 30 years, says this one was a particular challenge. “Firefighters found flame lengths of 5-6 feet.  The fire was burning very intensely.  It was spreading very rapidly, and that’s because things have been very dry.  We’ve been 3-4 inches below normal rainfall,” says Northrup. 

History complicated the situation.  Fires had occurred every few years in the Appalachian mountains – clearing the forest floor -- but the arrival of Smokey Bear put an end to that.  Controlled burns helped in some places, but 85 years of dead leaves, pine needles and brush had built up in others. 

Now if a house is burning, firefighters can attack head on, but Northup says the forest fire had grown to 70 acres before it was discovered. He says, “The behavior of that fire from the very beginning left us no choice but to go to what we call indirect attack – to sit down and look at a map and look at where we could make a defensible stand against this fire.”

Skyline Drive, a river or stream did the job in some places, while crews created new barriers elsewhere. Northrup says, “We have crews that have been out there just using leaf blowers, creating a three-foot wide fire break.”

More than 350 people joined the fight – among them expert hot shot crews from out west and a helicopter crew from the capital.

“Saturday they had the National Park Police helicopter come down and utilize its FLIR – forward looking infrared – which looks through the smoke, looks through clouds for heat sources and maps the heat,” says Norman Rooker, a retired fire chief from Colorado who got a call from Virginia last Tuesday, flew to Dulles and drove south to Grottoes. “This is my fifth fire season.  Everything’s been Arizona, Texas, California, Idaho, Montana – and it was like, ‘What? Do they even have fires east of the Mississippi?’ And I’m learning that yes they do.”

Near mile marker 72 on Skyline Drive, he stood in a small patch of forest marveling at the mosaic – large patches of green, smaller areas of brown, grey or black. 

Forest Fireman Norm Rooker says much of Shenandoah National Park remains green and healthy after a 10,000-acre fire.

“This was a fast- moving fire, because it scorched but it didn’t completely burn -- charring on the bases of the tree, but it only goes up part way, and it didn’t penetrate the bark, and if the root system isn’t damaged, this tree will come back.  Boy this is a fantastic spot.  It’s all green, and right next to it is completely undamaged, unburned, and that’s what we’re talking about -- that whole mosaic! Not that I’m excited.  I feel like the crocodile hunter.  Crickey.  She’s a beauty,” says Rooker.

Now, he says, the job is to plant wildflowers and grasses in areas that were cleared to stop the fire – to prevent flooding, erosion and a takeover by aggressive, non-native plants. He says, “Where trees are down the park service has already had folks in chipping, making mulch to hold the moisture in and to accelerate the re-growth.”

And while some crews are planting, others will be crawling from fire breaks into the forest. Rooker says, “As much fun as you can possibly have crawling on your hands and knees in mud, a hundred feet in, so that there’s no little place that the wind could fan some sparks and then toss that ember across the fire line and take off into the unburnt areas.”

Superintendent Northup thinks the bill for battling this blaze could exceed $5 million, but he also predicts the forest will make a speedy recovery.  

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief
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