South 1 Fire Update 7/1/08 AM
Incident: South One Wildland Fire
Released: 7/1/2008
South One Fire Update
Fire Information (540) 295-0389
Hours of Operation: 0800-2000
Florida Interagency Incident Management Team
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 10 a.m.
Current Status
The South One Fire is burning in fallen Atlantic White Cedar and logging slash remnants from Hurricane Isabel, on the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge 12 miles southeast of Suffolk, Virginia.
Acreage
4,307 acres
Containment
90 percent
Fire Cause
The fire started in the afternoon of Monday, June 9, when logging equipment caught fire.
Resources
There are 223 people on the fire, including 3 twenty-person hand crews. Equipment includes 11 engines, 6 bulldozers, 1 water tender, 1 Marsh Master, 1 Bombardier, 2 Geo Boy mowers, 2 Excavators, and 1 Harvester Saw. Three helicopters are supporting ground resources.
Participating Agencies & Cooperators
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Virginia State Department of Forestry, The Nature Conservancy, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources, Dismal Swamp State Park, Chesapeake Fire Rescue, Suffolk Fire Rescue and the Civil Air Patrol.
Restrictions and Closures
Lake Drummond is closed. Railroad Ditch, West Ditch, Interior Ditch and Corapeake Ditch Roads are closed to the public. The area of the Refuge south of Corapeake Ditch Road is also closed. The remainder of Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge remains open. All roads and trails in Dismal Swamp State Park are closed to the public; the Visitor Center remains open. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lake Drummond Reservation, part of the Canal, is closed to visitors. Contact the Corps at 757-201-7642 for more information. A temporary flight restriction is in effect up to 4,000 feet above the fire.
Today's Activities
&
Fire Behavior
Sunday's thunderstorm spread fames northward burning an additional 100 acres outside of the containment lines on Monday. Despite the increased fire activity yesterday afternoon, fire behavior throughout the evening was light and no significant spread was observed. The most active area of the fire remains in the northern section, west of Lake Drummond, and north of Interior Ditch. Firefighters will continue efforts to build containment lines in this section today. Other activities along the Interior Ditch include flooding the ditch with water from the Lake in an effort to saturate the fire edge, dredging the ditch to improve water flow, and mowing and clearing brush along side of the ditch. Crews will also work to extricate a piece of mowing equipment stuck in the muck since June 27. Helicopters assigned to the fire and will drop water on hot spots in this northern section, to support ground crews. Hand crews will continue water pumping and sprinkler operations along Riddick Ditch to the east and engine crews will continue to patrol the cooler fire edges along Corapeake Ditch to the south and the West Ditch. Major concerns include falling trees, the re-burning of unburned vegetation in areas that have already burned, and smoke. The Florida Interagency Incident Management Gold Team assumed command of the fire at 6 p.m. yesterday.
Fire Weather
Temperatures are forecasted to be in the middle 80's with winds from the northwest at 4-8 mph and 35-40 percent relative humidity.
Smoke
Smoke will continue to impact areas downwind of the fire. Residents and travelers should use extra caution when traveling through smoke.
Other Fire Information
Suffolk Saturday bus tours of the refuge are cancelled until further notice. On the Refuge, Jericho Ditch, Washington Ditch, and Portsmouth Ditch roads are open to the public. Speed limit on Desert Road near Refuge headquarters has been reduced to 35 mph due to heavy fire traffic. Further information on the Great Dismal Swamp can be found at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatdismalswamp/; more fire information at http://www.inciweb.org/
