Great Dismal Swamp Fire: Virginia Puts Out 3-Month Blaze

SUFFOLK, Va. -- A wildfire that burned thousands of acres in southeastern Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp over more than three months has been extinguished.

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge officials surveyed the burned area Friday and found no evidence of smoke. On Monday, an aerial reconnaissance flight confirmed those findings.

The fire was initially detected Aug. 4 after two separate lightning strikes. Before it was put out, the fire consumed more than 6,500 acres and as much as five feet of peat soil in the swamp. Smoke from the fire also extended as far north as Maryland at one point.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it deployed up to 400 firefighters to combat the flames in recent months.

Comments

[lastcardjb]

02:58 PM on 11/23/2011

And exactly why has this not ben news anywhere? We are treated to Snooky and Herman Cain non stop but not something as incredibly huge as this?
Where are the reporters and coverage at least from an ecological stand point.

[kwaut lizard]

09:42 AM on 11/24/2011

It supports an unpopular doctrine. Journalism is dead!

[1differentdrummer]

07:39 PM on 11/24/2011

Good question. Faved.

[mnyegele]

11:47 AM on 11/23/2011

I'm confused. Virginia is not supposed to have months of dry weather. It's not supposed to have brush fires. That's what happens in Southern California. Why?

No, global warming did NOT cause the fire in the Dismal Swamp. But add this fire in with the drought and brush fires in Texas. Then make a list of extreme weather events around the world, and you've found the smoking gun. Carbon emissions are changing our weather patterns. They will continue to do so for decades to come. This is just a preview of the future. It's also a strong reason for cutting our carbon footprint now.

[westcoastsc]

02:56 PM on 11/24/2011

There are huge peat reserves there. Lightning started it. I thought it had been going on for years. There is a town in PA that had to be abandoned after an underground coal fire started there. I think that it has been going on for many decades.

[sabelmouse]

07:11 AM on 11/23/2011

so there really is a dismal swamp ? i came across it in a novel recently but never checked if it was fictional.

[globaltrekkie]

11:02 PM on 11/23/2011

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatdismalswamp/

http://www.dismalswampwelcomecenter.com/

I would not make a special trip to see it alone, but if you were in the area for Colonial Williamsburg, VA or the Outer Banks, NC, then it would be a good stop. The swamp has a lot of underground railroad history too.

[sabelmouse]

07:08 AM on 11/24/2011

thanks for the links. in the book they find a big fortified hole that slaves may have been kept in for work.

[Andrew Harvey]

10:27 PM on 11/22/2011

Total nonsense.

That's just Phillip Morris doing a new round of product testing.

[WaitForSigns]

10:14 PM on 11/22/2011

Swamp fires are like coal seam fires. They burn deep beneath the surface if the swamp dries out. But this is one of the longest I've ever heard of.

It was burning away all the natural peat that took centuries to build up. If you let a swamp fire burn uncontrolled, you can change the ecology for many many years. A surface burn is renewing. A 3 month deep burn can be catastrophic. They are actually losing elevation in the swamp and entire ecosystems (White Cedar especially) are being lost.

It's probably unavoidable though. Between canals and global warming, all these swamps are going to burn up. :( I grew up not too far from the Dismal Swamp. Beautiful spooky old place.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

05:38 PM on 11/23/2011

Thanks for answering my questions. It will be a terrible world if all the great old places like this are lost. I am a lover of wetlands of all types, swamps, marshes and bogs. We need more wetlands in this country, not less.

[WaitForSigns]

06:53 PM on 11/23/2011

In fact we really do need more wetlands in this country. Just from a water quality or flood control standpoint. But wetlands have such unique ecologies.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

08:32 PM on 11/22/2011

I think "The Great Dismal Swamp" is absolutely the coolest place name that I have ever heard. I first read about it years ago and I fell in love with the name.

I am curious as to why the people in Virginia put so much effort into putting out a natural fire in a place that did not threaten any human structures. Was it just the smoke? Or was there some other reason? Fires are one of the ways in which natural wetlands preserve themselves, by burning down the accumulated peat the fires open spaces for water to flow and reinvigorate the swamp.

[blarneydude]

09:13 PM on 11/22/2011

Paddle the Dismal Swamp Canal to Lake Drummond and you'll really fall in love with it. Not a hard paddle, and entering the lake from the Canal is really cool. "Like entering an ocean from a jungle," I read before I did it. That described it.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

09:22 PM on 11/22/2011

I envy you the experience, thanks for sharing.

[Blow In]

02:58 AM on 11/23/2011

I rode my motorcycle through it several times in the early sixties. Great name, great ride and great big bugs.

The canal was surveyed by George Washington.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

03:13 AM on 11/23/2011

Thanks for the info. It sounds like you had fun, even if you did have to pick bugs out of your teeth. ;-)