LOGAN COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Two separate brush fires have spread to the forest in the Whitman Creek and Stollings areas of Logan County, putting businesses and neighborhoods in danger.
The city of Logan’s fire chief said they first responded to a brush fire behind some homes outside of city limits around 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Crews fight brush fires in southern W.Va.
“We’re probably in the neighborhood of 100 acres right now. The winds blowing directly toward the city. All this fire spread is going to be pushed right down in our residential neighborhoods,” Fire Chief Scott Beckett said.
Warren Smith owns P & A Auto Repair, and the business is directly in front of the hillside where fires are being contained.
“It can make you nervous because there’s a lot of dry grass and you got all these leaves on the hill and dead trees. Once they fall then you got embers flying towards your building, and so it just makes you a little bit nervous.”
Smith has family and friends living where the fire started. He said taking precautions is important for residents and his business.
“Try to keep all the leaves out of the back, try to keep anything that can burn and then before we leave tonight, we’ll wet this try to cut it off if we can,” Smith said.
Beckett said the fires can easily spread to residential areas because of the drought and wind.
“It’s an unnecessary thing that people really need to take a little bit better precautions and not do any outdoor burning until we get some substantial rainfall,” he said.
The Division of Forestry is still working to find out if the burns were legal, all while trying to mitigate the fires and keep them away from local businesses.
Local and state officials encourage all to be cautious and follow guidelines.
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