BEDFORD COUNTY, Va. – UPDATE - 6 p.m. 11/16/23
The Matts Creek wildfire has grown to 3,600 acres and is now 2% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
UPDATE - 9 a.m. 11/16/23
The Matts Creek wildfire has grown to 2,700 acres and is still 0% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Authorities told 10 News that they’re concerned about smoke spreading north toward the highway.
ORIGINAL STORY
Firefighters are working day and night to try and make any progress in terms of containing the Matts Creek wildfire.
The fire has grown to 2,500 acres according to the U.S. Forest Service. The fire is still 0% contained.
Stephanie Chapman with the U.S. Forest Service gave an update in terms of resources available to help battle the blaze.
“Tomorrow we’ll have 120 firefighters on the scene, with six fire crews, one hot shot crew and three helicopters,” Chapman said.
The helicopter crews do all of their work during daylight, which leaves on-the-ground crews the only ones trying to fight the fire at night.
The amount of resources is the largest it’s been since the fire broke out Sunday. However, additional resources are coming in slowly.
“Some of our resources are coming from Oregon. We had a gentleman just arrive from Colorado. We’re having some folks come from Arizona, so people have to travel a little bit to get here,” Chapman said.
A large part of the difficulty with the fire has to do with the terrain.
“The terrain is extremely steep and rocky. It’s also quite remote. Firefighters when the fire first started had to walk three miles just to get to the fire,” Chapman said.
Chapman plans to give another update on Thursday before noon.