GLASGOW, Va. – The highly anticipated and much-needed rain finally arrived on Tuesday, helping firefighters increase containment of the Matts Creek wildfire.
“We are expecting rainfall to increase in intensity overnight and tapering off after midnight. We are expecting two to three inches in total over the fire by the end of the system,” said Incident Meteorologist Trainee Cody Ledbetter.
Tuesday evening, officials announced the fire had been 57% contained across its 11,020 acres.
“It’s going to put an end to the fire spread. We do not expect the fire to spread anymore,” said Fire Behavior Analyst, Greg Titus.
Not only is the rain suppressing the fire, but the smoke is dying down too.
“The rain today is washing the particulates out of the sky as the raindrops are cleaning the air and the fresh air has moved the smoke out. With the extinguishment of the fire we aren’t expecting any more smoke tomorrow,” said Titus.
The next step for crews is to start repairing what’s left behind from the fire.
“We’ll remove hazards, trees, snags that have burned partially through because those can be a hazard if they fall across the fire line or into roadways,” said Titus.
Officials are so optimistic about this rain that they’ve even started sending a few out-of-town crews home.
“We’re going to release just a few at a time until we feel comfortable we can turn this fire back over to the home units,” said Titus.
While the rain is keeping firefighters off the frontlines, we are told they are partaking in additional training.
Burn bans still remain in effect for many of us across Southwest and Central Virginia. For an update, click here.