Virginia’s fall wildfire season has begun

BEDFORD COUNTY, Va. ( WFXR ) – Virginia’s fall fire season started October 15 and ends November 30.

Bedford County Fire Marshal Leo George III says the weather this time of year creates the potential for fires.

“With high winds and dry conditions it tends to spread quite rapidly that’s what we saw last year with the Matts Creek fire,” he said.

The Matts Creek fire burned more than 11,000 acres last November. It was on national forest land and handled by the Department of Forestry.

George says this year isn’t nearly as dry, but people should still stay vigilant.

“Debris or material, leaves, sticks, twigs that are out in your yard those are obviously great to burn but burning trash, burning any type of man-made material, especially building material you can’t burn those,” he said.

Another fire hazard as we get into the fall tourist season is people not putting out their campfires properly.

“The safest thing to do is to put water into that fire, make sure that it is out, stir it with a stick really well, put some more water in it and you should be able to put your hand down on the ground and not get burned,” he explained.

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