Wildfires are expected to get worse in West Virginia. The state isn’t prepared to protect people and property

WARDENSVILLE — As Peggy Barb peered out her living room window, flakes of smoldering ash began to fall on her wooden deck.

Tucked in the forest of Hardy County, her home was battered by strong winds that carried smoke from the wildfire closer.

As the flames from the Moores Run Fire approached, Barb fled the house with her daughter and grandchildren with minutes to spare.

“If we’d been in bed, or if we wouldn’t have been aware of the fire, we would have been in the house when it burned,” she said.

Later that week, she returned to find that her home had burned down to the foundation. Framed family photos were burned to a crisp. Jars full of loose change had melted and become runny like glue. Her claw-foot tub had many holes in it from when the fire pierced through the porcelain.

“I couldn’t believe how much it burned so hot,” she said. “There was nothing salvageable.”

During those few days in March earlier this year, fires surrounded Wardensville. Residents and volunteer fire crews raced to defend homes, businesses and property on three fronts.

During the three-month spring fire season , over 13,000 acres were burned by more than 500 wildfires in West Virginia. Climate change is making fire seasons more dangerous, creating more intense fires, and increasing the threats to West Virginia communities.

But the state agency charged with protecting people and property lacks the budget, staff and other critical resources to fight them, Mountain State Spotlight has found.

Budget cuts have inhibited the State Division of Forestry’s ability to prepare for and fight wildfires. In 2016, after two successive years of budget cuts, the agency lost one-third of its field staff. Then, in 2019, it lost more funding when lawmakers gave the industry a major cut in timber severance taxes.

“A lack of staff, training, and funding have impacted the State’s capacity to respond,” officials wrote in a 2023 statewide emergency plan .

Local volunteer fire departments are the first to respond to wildfires and in recent years, they have faced their own funding challenges .

In a funding request for this year’s budget, state forestry officials wrote that, with current staffing levels, the division was unable to manage multiple fires during the previous fire season.

“The stress and physical fatigue of suppressing wildfires is compounded when we do not have the ability to provide the proper resources to an emergency response.”

Climate change could amplify fire seasons

In the days leading up to the fires around Wardensville, the cocktail of poor weather conditions amplified the risk of fires. As this trend is expected to continue for future fire seasons, West Virginians will continue to be in harm’s way.

“The wind was just so fickle one minute and would do some circling back and forth,” said Heidi Flynn, who’s lived with her husband and their two children on Trout Run Road for almost two decades. “It was so unpredictable.”

Combined with strong winds, droughts can accelerate how fast fires can spread, said State Climatologist Kevin Law. Last fall, there were drought-like conditions across counties in the Eastern Panhandle and the Potomac Highlands, laying the groundwork for the destructive spring fire season.

“The problem was that it was warm and it was windy, and when you combine warmth with wind, you really speed up the evaporation process, which really dries us out,” Law said.

In 2023, drought conditions also contributed to an active season. Over 42,000 acres were burned statewide by over 1,100 fires — most of those igniting forest lands in the southern coalfields where they are most frequent. This is more than twice the average number of acres burned annually between 2001 and 2016 .

West Virginia has seen bad fire seasons before. Some of the state’s worst fire years in recent memory were 1987 and 1991, driven by tinder-box conditions from a lack of significant rainfall . Almost half a million acres were burned in 1987 alone.

Assistant State Forester Eric Jarrell said that state forestry officials have seen a trend of wildfires starting earlier in the season, especially in the spring. In the last few years, they’ve observed more fires in the Eastern Panhandle. This year alone, over half of all acres burned statewide and all reported property damage was in the region.

“They’re not getting some of the precipitation that we’re getting in other parts of the state,” he said.

At their house south of town, the Flynns watched in horror as flames from another wildfire raced down the ridgeline filling the air with smoke. As the fire moved closer, Heidi grew more afraid.

“You could see some of it was starting to burn the trees, which was our biggest fear because that would be it and there would be no hope,” she said.

Fortunately, their home was spared by fire crews and volunteers who worked tirelessly to dig a line break between the fire and their property.

As the climate evolves, so must approaches to handling severe fires, said Nicolas Zegre, a professor of forest hydrology at West Virginia University. He added that forest management practices like monitoring the forest floor by conducting controlled burns can lower the risk of wildfires and protect communities from harm.

“It’s important to acknowledge that as the climate becomes warmer, our forests are becoming drier and there is an expectation to have more frequent, severe fires in West Virginia over the 21st century,” he said.

All hands on deck

Along Main Street in Wardensville is the Capon Valley Volunteer Fire Department. A large parking lot leads visitors to the garage where three bright red fire trucks are parked.

In the tangle of fire hoses, cleaning supplies and fire safety posters are lockers where each volunteer has their helmet, heavy boots, gloves, and other protective gear underneath a paper name tag taped on the top.

With only one fire station in town, the department was spread thin during the March fires.

“We were being surrounded,” said Fire Chief Greg Hott. “We have a lot of homes up here that are out next to the [George Washington National] Forest and everywhere else.”

Like a dangerous game of Whac-A-Mole, Hott and his crews bounced from one fire to the next, working nearly 20-hour days.

“You’d get it stopped, and the way the wind was blowing and as dry as it was, you look 30 or 40 feet behind you and it would be blowing back over,” he said.

With the department bombarded with fire calls, residents stepped up to try to help.

Neighbors showed up with rakes, shovels and leaf blowers, and anything else they could find. They called themselves the “Company Zero Team.” They made T-shirts to honor the efforts of the volunteers and distributed them among members. Many in the group lacked fire safety or experience with firefighting but came together when the town was overwhelmed.

75-year-old James Tharp, a member of the group, was once a firefighter in the late 1980s and now works as an independent contractor

As the wind carried the fire and searing smoke around his home, Tharp reached for his water bucket and rake and got straight to work. He vowed to protect not only his home but other homes in his neighborhood.

“You weren’t paying attention to the time, you just had to get out there and make sure you try to take care of what needs to be taken care of,” he said.

Still, the Trout Run Fire and other fires like the Moores Run Fire threatened other homes and burned several outbuildings and 13 cars. The largest of the fires, The Waites Run Fire,  burned over 6,000 acres and is estimated to have cost over one million in damages .

Volunteer Fire Departments lack the resources to fight fires much like the Division of Forestry

When the call comes in for a wildfire, local volunteer fire departments are usually the first to respond.

The state relies heavily on them to squash fires because the Division of Forestry can’t respond to every large wildfire. After losing nearly three million in funding in 2014, the agency has struggled to bounce back from the budget cuts.

“The DOF has insufficient personnel to serve as first responders to all wildfires and in most cases, only has one or two personnel available in each county for wildfire suppression,” state forestry officials wrote in 2020.

In recent years, lawmakers have provided some additional funding to pay for new equipment and other expenses. However, staffing levels have not returned to what they were before the budget cuts.

In an email, House of Delegates spokesperson Ann Ali said funding issues for the Division of Forestry should be discussed during interim meetings or budget hearings. She said she would expect the Legislature to respond to any future emergency funding requests.

Division of Forestry spokesperson Andy Malinoski responded to initial broad questions about how the agency responds to wildfires. However, after repeated attempts, he declined to answer follow-up questions regarding the division’s budget, staff and development of more wildfire protection plans.

With the influx of fires in Wardensville, Hott said other departments and citizen-led groups like Company Zero came to help, though there was miscommunication as crews jumped from fire to fire.

“I think the Forestry Division was out on the fires, but with everything going on in the county, the communication wasn’t the best,” he said.

The department lost protective gear and water hoses in the fires. The front end of a fire engine was damaged and is still awaiting repairs.

Hott started a much-needed donation fund to refill fuel lines, feed exhausted volunteers, and purchase more firefighting gear.

Partnering with a local nonprofit, the Capon Valley Volunteer Fire Department raised $31,339 in donations which were split with a nearby volunteer department in Mathias. The nonprofit and community members also provided fresh meals and water to volunteers as they fought the flames.

Historically, volunteer fire departments statewide have struggled to obtain permanent funding from the state. Departments have raised money through barbecues, spaghetti dinners and bingo nights.

In 2023, lawmakers considered a bill that would have provided a new permanent funding source for volunteer fire departments and emergency medical service providers. It died on the final night of the session.

Earlier this year, they passed a similar bill , sending $12 million to the nearly 400 volunteer fire departments across the state. Before this law, each department received around $50,000 from the state, said Randy Walls, president of the West Virginia State Volunteer Firemen’s Association.

“$50,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it’s not in a sense,” he said. “Right now, if you were to go try to buy a new fire truck, you’re looking at half a million dollars or more.”

In Wardensville, Hott said he was not aware of new funding from the bill and costs for the department have steadily risen with mandatory inspections, fire retardant foam and truck parts costing thousands of dollars. Annual inspections for each fire engine cost $1,800 alone.

However, the department does receive funding from the state every three months from the fire insurance surcharge tax as long as they continue to file mandated paperwork detailing staffing and expenditures.

“It’s not a lot of money, but it’s enough to help keep things up,” he said. “I mean we try to be real careful with our money and then if we do need something, the community knows it.”

Are we prepared?

The Division of Forestry is assigned millions of state forest lands to protect from threats like wildfires. One of those protection strategies included the development of more plans that protect lives and property in case of wildfires.

But in West Virginia, nearly one-quarter of residents live in a high-risk wildfire zone, but only 4% in communities with a plan to protect against such fires.

Community Wildfire Protection Plans are comprehensive plans created to help protect high-risk communities from wildfires by outlining items such as plans to put them out, risk factors and emergency services contacts for homeowners.

Only 25 plans exist in the state, and even those are severely outdated and inconsistent, and all concentrated around the Eastern Panhandle. There are no plans in the southern coalfields, an area at one of the highest risks of wildfires.

“As population increases and land-use changes occur throughout the state, the need to expand the [Community Wildfire Protection Plan] program to other developing areas of the state is becoming apparent,” state officials wrote in a 2020 forest management plan.

Zegre said these plans include evaluating risk and include steps to mitigating wildfires when they sprout. They also involve collaboration between local agencies, like fire departments and emergency services, and homeowners at risk. A strong plan should include input from residents who understand their environment best.

One plan, located at the Crossings at the Great Cacapon subdivision in Hampshire County was last updated in 2015 — almost 10 years ago. The plan contains topographic maps of the region and lists emergency contact information for services nearby alongside a high wildfire rating.

This rating encompasses things like the slope of the area, foundation types of the homes and structures and the type of trees that line the woods of the community. The protection plan also features a detailed action plan that lists the next steps like establishing a fire tool cache and annually reviewing the plan.

However, these plans have not been updated since the budget and staffing cuts of 2016. Agency officials have cited the need to update severely outdated equipment like vehicles, radios, and weather monitoring devices as additional reasons that have impacted the development of more of those plans. In 2023, lawmakers approved $4 million for the division to replace equipment and vehicles used to fight wildfires.

Wardensville Mayor Betsy Orndoff-Sayers said the wildfires were frightening experiences for the community and that she was unaware of any wildfire protection plans available for residents.

“You don’t think about a fire evacuation plan. ‘What do I do? Who do I call? How does this work?’” she said. “It was a big learning curve for folks in the area.”

After the wildfires, smoke lingers in Wardensville

Peggy Barb and her family weren’t sure where they would live after sorting through the remains of their burned down home. They traveled from shelter to shelter until they found the Hardy County 4-H Camp.

Many of the cabins didn’t have heat, the bathrooms were communal, and there was only one kitchen. Barb and her family stayed for about two months until they were given a camper bought with community donations.

Today, the camper sits on their property just a few feet away from what’s left of their home. As Barb peers out the window of her camper, she sees the scrap heap of charred appliances and rusted metal that remains.

“That’s hard to sit here every day and look at it because you almost can’t not think about it,” she said.

Wildfires are expected to get worse in West Virginia. The state isn’t prepared to protect people and property appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight , West Virginia's civic newsroom.