PULASKI COUNTY, Va. – UPDATE: As of Wednesday night, officials in Pulaski County say the fire is 75% contained and has stayed within the perimeters of 491 acres.
The risk to five homes in the area has been “greatly diminished,” according to a post by Pulaski County Emergency Management Wednesday night. Parrott River Road and Dry Branch Road are both back open to residents.
Fire crews are patrolling and managing the fire for hot spots throughout the day Thursday.
An update on the Parrott River Road wildfire that has burned nearly 500 acres — crews are continuing to work to contain it.
We’re told the fire is 50 percent contained. 10 News joined crews to see their methods on how to control it.
Fighting fire with fire, that’s what emergency personnel told us they’re doing as they try to contain the wildfire.
“There are approximately 419 acres in our containment lines at this time,” Shawn Hite, Director of EMS in Pulaski County said.
Tons of smoke filled the air as emergency management told us the fire is still active and still spreading.
“This morning we consider it 50% contained but those numbers should rise as the burnout effort goes on throughout the day,” Hite said.
But the wind that swarmed the area Tuesday night and Wednesday morning did not help with putting this fire to rest.
“It was about 10:30 last night — it fired back up in the more in the Giles County side. At about 3:30 this morning, the wind picked up, relit the fire on the Pulaski County side and the Parrott area. Crews went back to work with some of the fire that was closer to the areas we worked with yesterday and we are back out today,” Justin Ritter, a firefighter and EMT for Pulaski County Public Safety Fire Division said.
“Once complete containment is obtained then we will continue to monitor the situation and the fire lines until we receive some rain,” Hite said.
Emergency personnel are asking people to steer clear of Parrott River Road for your safety and for their workers’ safety.