West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley were hit by wildfires six months ago. Now, the Mountain State is getting ready for fall, when there is a high chance of more wildfires because it is dry.
According to Doug Mongold, chief of the Moorefield Volunteer Fire Company, burn bans are already in place in some counties in southern West Virginia. He thinks that more counties will follow suit.
What worries Mongold the most right now is that it will be a very early fall because it has been such a dry summer. The leaves are already falling from the trees. “That is a big problem because the leaves are already falling. If there is a fire, that just makes it worse.”
Monroe Gold said that he tells people in West Virginia not to burn unless they have to.
Do not burn at all if they do not have to. “If you have to burn with a campfire or something else, make sure the area around it is clear and there is water there in case something goes wrong,” Mongold said.
“If you have any kind of fire, call the fire department and at least get them going. The faster you find it, the more likely it is that you can put it out.” So, just do those things with dedication.
Mongold said that local fire departments can not do much to get ready for possible fall wildfires other than raise awareness and teach people how to stay safe around fires. He did say, though, that there are now more resources at the state level.
There seems to have been some work done at the state level and some money was found. “Now I see that State Forestry has dozers and some new side-by-sides with firefighting gear like tanks, hose reels, and other things like that on the back,” Monday said.
Mongold said that Moorefield has been lucky to keep a good number of volunteers, even though the number of volunteers for volunteer fire departments across the country has gone down.
Comparatively, we still have a good amount of people, but when you have a fire that lasts for a few days, you quickly run out of people because they have to go back to work and other things. “So, sometimes it is hard,” he said.
Still, Mongold said that state agencies and fire companies in the area had learned from the spring wildfires.
“I believe that all the involved groups—the state forestry, the state office of emergency management, and the 911 centers—could talk to each other better,” Mongold said.
“Satellite view maps of the area would have helped you figure out if we could go in over here.” If it happens again, we will be ready for it better. We have better tools to get those kinds of things, but we can still do better if we work together and talk to each other more.
There was a lot of talk about calling 911 if you saw smoke or other signs of a fire.
