Fire burns 524 acres at Jamaica
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| Saturday’s forest fire destroyed a horse barn and shed (above) of Bridle Creek Horse Farm on Canoe House Road. The fire came within a few yards of reaching several homes on Jamaica Loop Road and Canoe House Road. (Photo by Larry Chowning) |
by Larry S. Chowning
A horse barn, shed and 524 acres burned Saturday when a fire that was started earlier in the week at a home near Laneview re-ignited and spread for miles, reported Upper Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department (UMVFD) Chief Billy Collier.
| Video courtesy of the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office |
“They (homeowners) were burning debris earlier in the week and thought they had the fire out,” said Collier. “On Saturday, they noticed it was smoking and attempted to put it out, but the wind made it jump into the woods.”
The fire was first reported at 12:10 p.m. Saturday. It started behind Union Shiloh Baptist Church, spread toward Route 17, and began jumping from spot to spot. The fire went all the way to Jamaica Loop Road and Canoe House Road.
“The wind was gusting and swirling up to 40 miles per hour and the fire started jumping as far as 50 yards,” said Collier. “At times, we would think we had it contained, then we would look down through the small pines and there was more fire and smoke.”
Middlesex volunteer firemen were fighting the fire in a deep ravine when the fire jumped across the ravine and surrounded the firemen, said fireman Mark Shelton. “Several of our people had to drop their hoses and jump through the fire to get out. We lost about 400 feet of hose right there.”
The UMVFD of Water View lost 250 feet of 2 1/2” hose and 350 feet of 3/4” forestry hose to the fire. One UMVFD firefighter had to be treated for smoke inhalation. The fire also melted some attachments on an Essex County fire truck and an Urbanna fire truck.
The fire spread to Bridle Creek Horse Farm on Canoe House Road in Jamaica. The owners were forced to evacuate their home along with 36 horses they boarded on the farm. “They were able to get all those horses in trailers and get them out,” said Collier. Virginia Motor Speedway opened up its grounds for storage of the horses, which currently do not have a home.
The horses were taken out just in time as firemen were able to save a large horse barn on the property, but fire took a smaller barn and a large shed. The fire melted the tires off a horse trailer, came to the edge of the larger horse barn and burned chunks of wood in the framing around the foundation.
All the homes on Jamaica Loop Road were evacuated along with several homes on Canoe House Road.
The fire advanced to the front door of Harry and Belinda Simmons on Jamaica Loop Road. “We evacuated but we went back to the house Sunday night,” said Belinda. “I couldn’t sleep because I could look out the window and still see fire off in the distance. Honestly, we shouldn’t have gone back home.
“I’ve been told that the Hartfield firemen saved our house by stomping the fire out with their feet until fire trucks arrived,” said Belinda.
The fire burned the skirting off a trailer on the Simmons property and burned underneath a propane tank in the yard. The tank did not explode.
Three State Department of Forestry bulldozers and one from Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway were used to fight the fire. Employees of the Virginia Department of Transportation were on the scene coordinating traffic on Route 17.
George D. Ellis, Corbin Hall Farm, Brown Croxton, Montague Farms, T.O. Longest, Gibson Logging and Wayne Burch provided trailers and tanks for hauling water. Church View Septic provided porta-potties and a truck, and the Bayport Boy Scout Camp at Jamaica provided water to fight the fire.
The Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department set up a command post at old Jamaica Post Office where firemen coordinated the fight in the sheriff’s mobile command vehicle. “As night was coming on, we needed a central location to establish accountability of our people,” said Ray Burch, chief of the Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department of Urbanna who was in charge of the command post. “We also used it to coordinate helicopters and road assistance.”
The Nightingale helicopter flew over the scene at 2:30 p.m. to provide aerial input on the direction of the fire.
A State Police helicopter flew over Saturday night to give additional information.
Fire departments from Mathews, King and Queen, Essex, White Stone, Kilmarnock, Hartfield, Water View, Deltaville and Urbanna all worked the fire. “We didn’t bring fire trucks from Deltaville because we needed one department on standby for any other problems that might come up in the county,” said Collier.
Firemen from the Lower Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department of Deltaville did have to respond to two fire calls in the Saluda area.
By 11 p.m. Saturday, all out-of-county fire departments except Mathews had to leave the Jamaica fire scene because of fire calls in their own counties. Over 800 acres burned in upper Gloucester County.
Volunteer firefighters from all four county fire departments and many others volunteers worked 12 straight hours fighting the blaze. There were around 100 firemen and auxiliary workers on the scene throughout the fire.
Collier also thanked Big John’s Convenience Store for staying open until 1 a.m. to provide fuel, food and water for firemen. The store also allowed the UMVFD Ladies Auxiliary to use its facilities to prepare meals for the firemen. The Pilot House in Topping also provided food, Hardee’s contributed iced tea, and Deltaville Market provided 50 cases of drinking water. Meals were delivered at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and firemen took shifts at meal time so there was always someone fighting the fire.
“I want to thank all the departments and all the counties that helped us,” Collier said. “We had a lot going on. The rescue squads in Urbanna and Deltaville, the State Police, county police and Red Cross did a great job of helping us out too.”
On Monday, former Mid-dlesex Extension agent W.D. Edwards, who owns some of the forest land that burned, said the rapid movement of the fire actually saved many trees. “It was not a long extended fire that would have burned trees down and killed them,” he said. “It was a fast moving fire and that was good for older, larger trees. Some pine trees under 20 years old will die, but the larger pines will most likely grow faster now with the brush and undergrowth gone. I’ve probably lost some trees but I’m not worried about it so long as no one lost their homes.”
A group of Water View firemen—Evan Perry, Tom Brooks, Aaron Anderson, Patrick Burch, Patrick Howard and Will Bristow—took a fire truck into a field to confront the fire. They pulled out 400 feet of hose and walked down a ravine and up a hill to where the fire was burning.
“We started fighting the fire, and then suddenly a gust of wind took the fire overtop us and landed on the other side of the ravine,” said Perry. “Within a matter of minutes, we were completely surrounded by fire and had run out of water.”
At that point, the firefighters realized the fire was about to reach their truck, so they jumped through flames to get to the truck and out of the fire.
The firemen lost 400 feet of hose and the heat damaged several apparatuses on the fire truck.
“The wind was gusting and throwing fire in all directions,” said Perry. “It happened so fast that it confused us, but we had to get out of there because we were out of water. It was a hot situation!”
