Va. wildfires contributing to smoke across the Northeast
It hasn't been smoky around Augusta County the last week, but to the west, north and northeast, smoke has swirled from a fire just up the road in Madison.
The wildfire around Quaker Run Road was first discovered on Oct. 26. Its cause is still undetermined but it's now stretched across 1,600 acres at an estimated cost of over $40,000.
As of Friday, the Quaker Run fire, fueled by timber and brush, was considered only 40% contained. Over 70 incident personnel were working the fire, according to details in the Hazard Mapping System: Wildfire and Smoke viewable on The News Leader's data page. It appears to be the largest wildfire in the region as of Friday.
Its smoke is feeding into a wider drift of smoke from fires in the Southeastern and South Central United States, "particularly fire activity over Virginia, eastern Kentucky and northern Georgia," according to NOAA, generating a mostly thin density smoke plume that was extending north and east as far as New England and out over the Atlantic Ocean.
A larger look at the smoke and fire map on The News Leader's data page shows light smoke spreading across much of the East Coast from Salisbury, Maryland to north of Portland, Maine, covering most of Pennsylvania, New York and New England.
The smoke from the Quaker Fire appears most dense directly north of the fire.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Virginia fire, including Quaker Run, contributing to vast swath of smoke over Northeast
