Take a look at some of the fire behavior we experienced last week on the St. Mary's 4500 acre wildfire.  We need lots of rain.

George Washington & Jefferson NF's


KEEP SAFETY OUR #1 PRIORITY

Fire Behavior on the St. Mary's Incident
	

	

Howdy, Just wanted to say thank you again for all of the great support & help over the last couple of weeks. I wanted to send this picture out to reinforce to those of you who may show up for the next incident, of the conditions that are present here on the Glenwood & Pedlar RD.  I can't recall fire behavior of this magnitude with the exception of the Castle Complex in 1995 (NCRD). If you estimate the tree height of just 50 ft on the ridgetop, the fire run in this picture exceeds 250 ft flamelengths as it approaches the ridgetop.
Another heads up here is that the WDBJ weatherbug website showed over 8" inches of precipitation at Wintergreen Mountain (same general area)  for the month of March. (Most of that precip was received early in the month). Heavy fuel loadings coupled with abnormally dry conditions (drought conditions since August 2006), low humidity's (25-40 range) and wind gusts to 20 mph will likely cause these same fire behavior conditions to exist for the rest of the month of April.
Take care, heads up and thanks again!! Also thanks to District Ranger, Annie Downing for capturing this excellent photo!!!

David R. Bostic
Central Zone, Assistant Fire Management Officer
Glenwood & Pedlar Ranger Districts
George Washington & Jefferson National Forest