Sorry for the delay in sharing this news about these fires in Virginia here. I shared it on my social media. It feels like we're getting pounded with one major news event after another. I use the word pounded to describe what it's doing to our spirit. They're constantly inflicting fear upon us. I'm a strong person spiritual speaking. But even I get overwhelmed with the onslaught of attacks upon our psyche. Like in the movie, Monsters Inc. Just think what did the monsters need to survive in that movie? These are not organic wildfires as they want us to believe. Too many similarities to the California fires, the Oregon fires, the Washington fires, the Lahaina, Maui, the Hawaii fires, the Texas panhandle fires, the Canada fires, the Greek fires, the Chile fires that I will share with you below.. (emphasis mine)
I took this screenshot today from
https://www.fireweatheravalanche.org/fire/state/virginia
I took this screenshot today from:
https://data.newsleader.com/fires/
Look at Alberta, Canada. Wow. I took this screenshot today from:
https://data.newsleader.com/fires/
FOX 5 Washington DC published March 20, 2024: Brush fire breaks out in Page County, Virginia. A massive brush fire is burning in Page County, Virginia. SkyFOX captured the scene just outside of Luray - near Shenandoah National Park. Early Wednesday, the Page County administrator declared a State of Emergency because of the fire.
WUSA9 published Mar 21, 2024: Brush fires still burning in several parts in our region. We are taking a live look from Sky9 at one of the biggest fires burning right now in Page County Virginia, which includes Shenandoah National Park.
I took this screenshot from the WUSA9 news report above from that day.
Virginia Mercury
written by Charlie Paullin
Thursday March 21, 2024
Over 100 fires blazed in several parts of the state this week, burning about 7,500 acres throughout parts of Central, Southwest and Northern Virginia. By early Thursday morning, the Virginia Department of Forestry, local firefighter crews and national partners contained about half of them.
The hotspots for the blazes include the Charlottesville and Roanoke areas, and the counties of Louisa and Rappahannock, said Department of Forestry spokesperson Cory Swift-Turner in an interview. Some fires in Page and Shenandoah counties had grown to consume over 2,000 acres.
A combination of dry conditions, with humidity levels as low as 15% or 20%, and strong winds knocking down utility power lines ignited many of the fires, Swift-Turner said. In Roanoke, a car fire ignited a brush fire that has been contained.
“When we see these weather conditions, the fuels that are usually fueling our wildfires combust very easily,” Swift-Turner said.
Crews focused their firefighting efforts by creating “containment lines,”which are typically six-foot-wide land barriers cleared of dead leaves and other flammable vegetation that fuel the flames. Sometimes a bulldozer is used to create containment lines that are 11 feet across, but mountainous terrain can make it difficult to install those in western regions of the state.
“Sometimes we can’t use the bulldozers,” Swift-Turner said, “so our crews have to go in and carve those containment lines in by hand with tools and it takes more time. It’s dangerous and that can sometimes result in the fires expanding more.”
No injuries by firefighters or civilians had been reported, Swift-Turner said.
Outside of the larger fires in Shenandoah National Park, the conditions aren’t uncharacteristically severe for the spring burning season, which runs until April 30, Swift-Turner added. The state typically sees an average of about 700 wildfires a year, which also includes ones sparked during the fall fire season. By the final days of this past fall season, the department had responded to over 100 fires that burned more than 12,000 acres. The agency states the average number of acres burned per year is about 9,500.
Last year, Virginia’s air quality declined due to wind patterns blowing smoke from the wildfires in Canada down the east coast. Similarly, air quality has decreased in the state due to this week’s fires, with the most hazardous hazes in and around the Shenandoah National Park, including Luray in Page County, said Dan Salkovitz, a meteorologist with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
“Last year, we had really high [levels of unhealthy air quality] over a very large portion of the state,” Salkovitz said. “The area that’s [now] being affected is smaller, but still, for people who live in those areas it can be unhealthy.”
Crews are expected to keep working with the goal of having all the fires contained by the end of the weekend, and their efforts will likely be assisted by the rainfall forecasted to hit the area Friday night, Swift-Turner said. Shifting winds from the southeast should change the drifting pattern of any smoke residing in the air, Salkovitz said. There’s still a risk of new fires, though.
“After we get this rainfall, we could have another period where we have the windy weather and the low humidities,” Swift-Turner said. “And, most likely, we’re only gonna get warmer temperatures. That can further improve conditions for wildfires to start as we go into April.”
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CBS News
written by Staff and Associate Press
Sunday March 24, 2024
The West Virginia National Guard joined in battling wildfires Friday that have scorched more than 6.25 square miles (16 square kilometers) in the state and destroyed several homes.
Two Blackhawk helicopters dropped water from buckets on the fires in steep, wooded terrain in Hardy County, the National Guard said on social media. The lightweight, flexible buckets hold up to 630 gallons (2,385 liters) of water.
The fires began earlier this week amid gusty winds and low relative humidity.
In Virginia, more than 100 fires popped up Wednesday, many of them in the central part of the state, forcing the closure of sections of Skyline Drive and the Appalachian Trail. A fire ban was put in place for all of Shenandoah National Park. Fires also were reported this week in neighboring Maryland.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency Thursday in the northeastern counties of Grant, Hampshire, Hardy and Pendleton, enabling state resources to be allocated and to expedite emergency response efforts.
"Our crews are some of the best in the nation and we will continue to support efforts to combat these fires until our partners with the Division of Forestry say the danger has passed," National Guard Lt. Col. Todd Justice said in a statement. "We will do all we can to protect our fellow West Virginians and work to keep local responders safe."
The statement said more equipment and National Guard personnel may be deployed if needed. Volunteer fire departments from across the state also have helped with the fires.
Hardy County, along the Virginia line less than a two-hour drive from Washington, D.C., has about 14,000 residents, considerable poultry and other agricultural operations. It also offers tourists an array of river float trips and hiking and cycling trails.
Paul Lewis, Hardy County's emergency management director, said there were three ongoing fires in the county, including one initially believed to be under control that had worsened near Wardensville. As many as four homes were destroyed in the county, along with an undetermined number of outbuildings, camps and hunting grounds.
"We're not sure of the total number yet because some of those fires are still active in a couple of those areas," Lewis said. "Most of these are in the mountains. There's been a lot of smoke in the area today."
West Virginia regulators issued an air quality advisory Friday in eight counties. The Division of Air Quality said that some sensitive groups could have breathing difficulties because of the fires, including children, elderly people and others suffering from asthma, heart disease or other lung diseases.
"We were hoping with the rain moving in later this evening that that will help us a great deal," Lewis said.
🚨RELATED INFO BECAUSE I DIDN'T DO A POST FOR CHILE🚨
The massive fires in Chile happened when I wasn't able to access my GlobalAwareness101 website due to someone trying to hack my account. When I finally did get access. So many new events happened that the train in my head took off causing this news to get further and further away. So I am including the Chile fires with the Virginia fires because I believe it's the same cause. I did manage to share this news on all my social media platforms in real time though. (emphasis mine)
GlobalAwareness101 published CHILE: Raging Fires Lit Burned 64,000 Acres Similar To Lahaina Fire. Locals witnessed men setting fires throughout the neighborhood. Hawaii Maui Lahaina 2.0. The cars were incinerated the same way.
Mint, 2/5/24: Chile Wildfires: The confirmed death toll from deadly wildfires in Chile rose to 112, an Interior Ministry official has said, as reported by AFP. According to Interior Minister Carolina Toha, the weekend blazes have been "without a doubt" the deadliest fire event in Chile's history. By Sunday, some 26,000 hectares (64,000 acres) had burned in the central and southern areas, AFP has reported citing SENAPRED, the national disaster service.
GlobalAwareness101 published CHILE Former President Died 2/6 By Drowning In Helicopter Crash In Lake.
BBC 2/6/24: Sebastián Piñera: Chile ex-president drowns after his helicopter crashes in lake.
Chilean ex-President Sebastián Piñera, who served two terms and was also a billionaire businessman, has died in a helicopter crash at the age of 74.
Three other people aboard the aircraft survived when it came down in a lake near the southern town of Lago Ranco.
A post-mortem carried out on Piñera's body, which had earlier been recovered from the submerged helicopter, showed he had drowned.
National mourning has been declared and tributes have poured in.
Piñera was spending his holidays with his family in the lakeside resort of BahÃa Coique, 920km (570 miles) south of the capital, Santiago.
The ex-president often used his private helicopter to travel around the area and officials have confirmed he was piloting it when it crashed on Tuesday.
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