ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – The Virginia Department of Forestry was monitoring the Havens Wildlife Management area in Roanoke County Wednesday morning after a brush fire tore through Tuesday.
“We got the call about 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon and actually the first two units came out of Fort Lewis our Fort Lewis Station, Station 9, and they reported when they came out of the station they could see the smoke,” said Brian Clingenpeel, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Roanoke Fire & Rescue.
More crews came to assist after what started as a two-acre burn, spread to five acres.
Once containment lines were put in around the fire, including backburning operations, 67 acres were burned.
“At the height of this, we had about 80 firefighters there as well as two bulldozers from the Department of Forestry. We had volunteer staff, we had career staff, we had tankers and brush trucks and utility vehicles,” added Clingenpeel.
For Wes and Krissy Mullins, who live in the area, the fire was too close to home.
“You could see smoke at first and then yesterday after dark you could see the flames,” said Krissy.
That’s when they knew they had a decision to make.
“We were sort of debating about whether we should start preparing to evacuate, like pack some stuff up and get things ready just in case,” she added.
They never had to evacuate. Crews were able to contain the fire and there were no injuries or structural damage.