Suffolk brush fire rekindles

SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - After much work to extinguish the flames, a brush fire in the 6200 block of Trumpet Drive in Suffolk rekindled Tuesday before 1 p.m. and is still burning.

"We'll probably have one more sleepless night before we can actually settle back down," said Tom Etheridge, who lives in front of the fire. He and his family noticed a problem behind their house before going to bed Monday night.

"My wife about midnight decided to let the dogs out, before she put them up and it was glowing red out there and we were like man, it's a fire," he said.

Firefighters went and worked until 4 a.m. Tuesday to contain the blaze by creating a fire line.

Bryan Alexander with the Virginia Department of Forestry said, "[Tuesday] the sun's out. Not much cloud cover, low humidity. It's in the 90s, maybe even a hundred out here. A little light and variable winds. Some embers flew over the line and we're off to the races again."

Soaring temperatures in the air did not slow the mission for crews. More than 40 firefighters worked to stay safe while working against the heat of burning brush.

"We rotate them in every 15 minutes or so," said Suffolk Fire Battalion Chief Ted Adams. "We try to keep them in the air condition, check their blood pressure, pulses, things like that."

In half a day, a four acre fire more than doubled in size to more than 10 acres.

"The wind has changed direction several times on us while we've been out here which causes problems for us. It causes the fire to change directions, it causes us to move operations from side to side," said Adams.

Shifting winds, unrelenting heat, and lack of rain fueled the fire. But Tuesday night there was optimism the new, larger fire line would hold.

Still, Etheridge had he moved his family's horses back away from the smoke, closer to the house. He also kept his young daughter inside. "The fire department says - they reassured us we should be good to go. I'm going to keep and eye on it though," he said.

No one was injured in the fire.

The Department of Forestry will handle an investigation to figure out how it started. That will begin once the fire is out, which could take several days or longer.