By Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer and Kristin Davis
A fire that began in the Dismal Swamp in 1923 burned for three years, sending yellowish peat smoke over Hampton Roads for just as long and scorching nearly 100,000 acres.
It was called the Great Conflagration.
"We're not going to let this one get that big," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Mark Tracy said Tuesday afternoon of the Dismal Swamp fire that's been burning for more than two weeks.
But how long will the smoke last?
Best-case scenario: A summer squall - maybe even the one predicted for Thursday - drenches the swamp with inches of rain this week, putting out the blaze that's been the source of the nasty smoke drifting through Hampton Roads.
A more likely scenario: The fire burns for weeks and peat soil smolders for months until a hurricane or a tropical storm drenches the area, Tracy said. Until then, the smoke will keep coming.
Officials fighting the North Carolina wildfire, which is burning some 41,000 acres in and around Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, say that's what it will take there, too.
Smoke from the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge fire is likely to taper off as firefighters continue to pump water across the swamp, putting out portions of the flames and soaking the soil, Tracy said.
On Tuesday, they continued using three devices capable of pumping 4,200 gallons of water a minute.
Hampton Roads should experience some relief from high-up westerly winds that are blowing the smoke out toward the ocean, preventing it from floating north, said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield.
The westerly winds - a typical weather pattern for the mid-Atlantic during the summer - are expected to continue through about the middle of next week, Hurley said.
The smoke has not hurt business in Virginia Beach, tourism officials there said.
"Hopefully, the ocean is a bigger draw than the smoke is a deterrent," said Nancy Perry, executive director of the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association.
Perry canvassed hotels this week, and all said the smoke has not hurt their business. Occupancy numbers are collected on a fixed schedule, she said, so statistics won't be available for several weeks.
Pam Lingle, spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, said her organization has received only one call about the fires, from someone who was checking into a hotel and wanted to know what to expect.
Some hotels on the Outer Banks have reported guests canceling reservations because of concern over the smoke, according to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.
"There have been some people that have called and canceled at |hotels," said Managing Director Carolyn McCormick, noting that reports of that were few.
Rental properties are typically immune to such cancellations because most guests are locked in to their reservation, McCormick said.
Staff writers Ryan Hutchins and John Warren contributed to this report.
Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com
Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com
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Perspective
OK, The Dismal Swamp fire has scorched around 3000 acres of swamp. They have just recently gotten their pumping capacity up to 14,000 gallons of water per minute. Considering that the fire is smoldering in the peat under the surface they may need to flood the area to a depth of up to 15 feet to get all of the fuel saturated to the point that it won’t burn any more.
With their pumping capacity running at full tilt it would take more than four days to deliver just 1 inch of water to the whole area and more than 48 days to flood this area with only a foot of water. At the 14,000 gallons per minute it would take nearly 2 years to flood the area with 15 feet of water. Keeping in mind that the water they are pumping is spreading through the peat all over the swamp it could take a long long time to fully saturate the needed areas.
It’s no wonder that the fire officials have said that a tropical storm or hurricane dropping many inches of rain to the entire swamp may be the only way to put out the fire before summers end. We can only hope the fire isn’t already travelling underground ready to pop up somewhere else in the future. By the way the locks on the waterway in
To UnionMan
Then they need to change it's Wild Refuge designation to a development area...Who comes first? People or wild animals? I would hope people come first.
Managing director of what?
I refer to: "said Managing Director Carolyn McCormick, ..."
In the next sentence: 'Rental properties are typically immune to such cancellations because most guests are locked in to their reservation, McCormick said.'
Who is this woman and what does she manage? Wow! How hard core!
"Hi Ms McCormick, we need to change our visit because little Joey and Janey have terrible asthma and can't be in all that smoke."
"Sorry, that week is yours. No changes, no refunds. You knew you'd be locked into it when you reserved."
"But no one could predict something this unusual and for it to be something that would ever affect us..."
"Too bad so sad. You bought it now come on and have fun. Theres a nearby hospital if the kids start gasping too much."
NikkiM
These things just don't happen overnight. First, you have to have a very good idea as to exactly where the fire is at. Second, as previously mentioned, the surface fire has to be put out. Third, the terrain in both places are a nightmare of swamp, brush and trees and it is very difficult to move around in. And fourth, you have to then get all that equipment into the area to do the flooding/pumping of water and get enough water to do the job. All of this is not something that happens with the snap of anyone's fingers. In the NW, just because of how steep the terrain was and even with helicopters, even a small fire would take a while to put out and make certain it was completely out. If I was still fighting wildfires, I'd much rather deal with one of those fires than a bog or peat fueled fire.
To Nikki M
Please let me crush those conspiracy theories for you before they begin to spread. I have just finished a 14 day detail on the South 1 fire at the Great Dismal Swamp. It is very easy to explain the flooding strategy. Tactically you cant begin to extinguish a wild-land fire until you have it contained. Containment just means you have containment lines around it, or have it going in a direction to contain it via natural means... IE Lake Drummond. We couldn't start to flood the fire until we had proper containment lines around it, it is unsafe to send people into an unsecured fire, therefore containment lines needed to be established. They took a long time to make due to the nature of the terrain. Has anyone tried to hike the Dismal Swamp? Not the road or trails... I mean just pick a spot and start walking through. Its impossible. So it took us a really long time to get into the fire area, and above all else to get into it safely. Burned trees and a little smoke is a small price to pay when we speak of firefighters lives in danger.
MarkK, that still doesn't explain why it has taken
Them 2 weeks to start flooding the fire zone. They knew it was peat, they know what it does, why did they wait? Why not start flooding the zone immediately? My conspiracy theory guess, the smoke/fire will go away when they are good and ready for it to go away, when they've busted through the budget set aside for fighting fires and when all the overtime hours to be had have been had; then and only then will the smoke/fire be gone. In the meantime we'll continue to look like Beijing, China with air that is so polluted it's harmful to breathe.
To Suejulene
I grew up in logging towns in the Pacific NW with a father who fought forest fires and later, I did the same for a time. These fires are different from those: these have a base of peat underneath the ground where the fire can burn and not be seen. The fire can burn that way for weeks then crop up miles away as the diagram shows. That is why they have to flood entire areas and keep them flooded for weeks to make certain the fire is really out. The problem is, it takes time. Water buckets from helos don't penetrate down into the peat far enough to do any good. The smoke is only harmful to those with breathing difficulties. It stinks to beat heck, but it is actually less harmful than the exhaust fumes from all the vehicles around here.
Unionman
To Orion, this is no joke just wondering, are you the one who went by the name, Waterbucket in another life?
Never used that screenname that I know of, why do you ask?
To Marks57720
The swamp has been drained. That's the problem. Remember those ditches and fire roads? They weren't there during George Washington's time. The swamp was more like the Florida Everglades and Okefenokee Swamp back then.
Oh, your plan of filling it in and selling to developers ain't happening. Where do you think they got the name Wildlife Refuge?
To Orion, this is no joke just wondering, are you the one who went by the name, Waterbucket in another life?
Let's develop it!
The easiest solution is to drain the swamp...dig up the peat and use it...then heavily develop the area with businesses and homes! No more fires!
Smoke
I often wonder if, in fighting this type of fire, saturating it with water dropped from helicopters is being used or would work to put it out. Both my husband and I have seen this technique used in Canada and in the western part of the United States. I am surely looking forward to the smoke being gone.. asthma and the smoke do not go well together.
More Pilot goodness
A summer squall - maybe even the one predicted for Thursday...
Huh? Where did Ms. Davis get this information; or is it another poorly written sentence?
I find it humorously ironic that it will take a potential natural disaster to get rid of another...