Virginia Department of Forestry to Aid Wildfire Efforts in Oklahoma

Twelve members of the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) will deploy Wednesday (Jan. 11, 2006) to Shawnee, Oklahoma to help with wildfire suppression efforts in the state.

Five two-person crews - each driving a tractor transport loaded with a fire dozer - and two supervisors - each driving a 4x4 fire suppression pickup truck - will depart Abingdon at 10 a.m. for the two-day, 950-mile drive to Shawnee. They will join four other VDOF staff who deployed last week to serve as fire safety and fire information officers.

The fire dozer crews are from New Kent, Frederick, Mecklenburg, Bedford and Washington counties. The task force leaders are from Nottoway and Halifax counties.

A combination of drought, high winds and low humidity have created conditions ripe for wildfires that have burned nearly 400,000 acres during the past 70 days. Officials expect this weekend to be very active in terms of wildfires.

The VDOF crews will be deployed for at least two weeks.

The Virginia Department of Forestry protects and develops healthy, sustainable forest resources for Virginians. Headquartered in Charlottesville, there are Forestry staff members assigned to every county to provide service to citizens of the Commonwealth. With nearly 16 million acres of forestland and more than 248,000 Virginians employed in the forest products industry, Virginia forests provide more than $30 Billion annually in benefits to the Commonwealth.