Burning out

STEELES TAVERN - Firefighters made strides in the St. Mary's Wilderness area fire Saturday, bringing the more than 4,000-acre blaze under a two-thirds containment.

Robert Beanblossom, an administrator with the West Virginia State Parks, said the mop-up of the fire would continue today, and perhaps some rehabilitation of the area, which has burned since early this week.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Chris Rose said the hope is that the fire could be totally contained over the next two to three days, though it may not completely burn out for a couple of weeks.

Barriers now surround the fire, and firefighters from federal, state and local volunteer departments are not contending with as many obstacles as they were early on.

"The terrain and the weather were the biggest problems early on," Rose said.

He said the winds and high temperatures made the fire much more active just after its start. But the winds have greatly abated. Rose said winds on Saturday were as low as 4 miles per hour, as compared with gusts of 30 miles per hour earlier in the week.

Route 56 was closed from the town of Vesuvius to the Blue Ridge Parkway during the day Saturday so snags and dead trees could be removed.

National Park Service spokeswoman Betsy Haynes said people who needed to travel on Route 56 could do so if they were escorted.

The road was reopened late in the day, and the Blue Ridge Parkway from Route 56 to Love Gap was also reopened.

Haynes said while the fire's acreage has increased in the past couple of days, it poses no threat to homeowners in the area.