Albemarle fire and rescue crews responded Wednesday to 19 brush fires across the county, with assistance from squads from elsewhere in Virginia.
“Most of those were small in nature but there were three that were very significant brush fires,” said John Oprandy, Albemarle’s Deputy Chief of Emergency Management, at a press conference held Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
Oprandy said the first call came in after 1 p.m. yesterday and crews were sent to one of those significant fires at Taylor’s Gap Road.
“The fire impacted about approximately 250 acres and as of this information release it’s about 50 percent contained,” Oprandy said. “Two outbuildings are being considered as total losses in that fire. No residential structures have been impacted and in fact, 15 to 20 residences were directly saved by the efforts of the Fire Department.”
The exact cause of the fire was still under investigation but Oprandy said it took time to contain the fire because the practice is to build a fireline around the entire blaze and the topography and steep terrain adds time.
Oprandy said another significant fire was at Blackberry Hill in far northwest Albemarle with a call to service coming in at 1:40 p.m. with the first unit on site 35 minutes later. It took five and a half hours to contain the 20 acre blaze.
“The cause of this fire was determined to be an open air burning violation and subsequently a summons was issued,” Oprandy said.
The call for a third fire came in at 3 p.m. for a fire at Piney Mountain and it took 12 minutes for the first fire truck to arrive.
“This fire impacted approximately 180 acres,” Oprandy said. “No residential structures were impacted but one shed is being considered a total loss. Crews contained the fire by 2 a.m. this morning, Thursday, and they are still working on the cause of that fire as well.”
(image) John Oprandy, Albemarle County’s Deputy Fire Chief for Emergency Management (Credit: Sean Tubbs)
There were evacuation orders associated with the Piney Mountain and Taylors Gap fires, and Oprandy said Albemarle wants people to sign up for Community Alerts.
- Sign up on the website
- Download the Smart 911 app
- Text “Albemarle” to 226787
The fires all happened on what the National Weather Service describes as a “Red Flag Day” which is determined by several conditions such as high winds, a low dew point, and humidity.
“These fires spread very rapidly once they got started,” Oprandy said.
There are no reported injuries related to the fires.
This week’s brushes happened at a time when vegetation is still beginning to come to life and conditions are unique.
“We could have had several days of rain, but a little bit of rain dries out that top layer of leaves and sticks and twigs left over from the winter, and that dries immediately, and we haven’t greened up in the springtime so that creates a level of dryness that you don’t see at other times of the year,” Oprandy said.
That’s why the Virginia Department of Forestry has an open air ban on burning before 4 p.m. from February 15 to April 30 each year. Visit their website for more information.
Albemarle County crews were augmented by mutual aid responses from other Virginia localities, some of whom were hundreds of miles away.
“Although we have seen weather like this happen before, this is not a normal situation in that eight other counties, mostly surrounding this area, also had declarations of emergency for brush fires,” Oprandy said. “Under ordinary circumstances, we might be able to reach out to Nelson County, Fluvanna County, Buckingham County, Louisa County, and get brush trucks and apparatus and personnel, but they were all fighting the fires in their county.”
Albemarle was assisted by crews from Amelia County, Cumberland County, Pulaski County, and Carrollton Fire Department from Isle of Wight County.
Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment is from the March 21, 2024 edition of the newsletter. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.
