Southside Fires update

Falling trees cut power lines at two locations in Pittsylvania County on Sunday afternoon, trig-gering rapidly-spreading fires as a result of high-speed winds.
One blaze destroyed three abandoned buildings and scorched about 100 acres off Ferguson Road in Ringgold, knocking out power, taxing area departments and sending one firefighter to the hos-pital with minor injuries after a small tree fell on him.
Another blaze burned about five acres and threatened residences along Little Creek Road im-mediately north of Danville.
The fires were just two among many smaller fires in the county and others across southern Vir-ginia, prompting Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to declare a state of emergency in the commonwealth.
A declaration of emergency allows the governor to immediately deploy state personnel, equip-ment, and other emergency-response resources, and to coordinate state and local response to the event, according to a news release.
In Pittsylvania County, 13 trucks and more than 50 firefighters from several agencies - in-cluding Ringgold Fire & Rescue, firefighters from Blairs, Kentuck, Mount Hermon, Keeling, Riv-erbend and Danville, and a crew from the Virginia Department of Forestry - responded to the fires.
It took firefighters about four hours to contain the inferno at Ferguson Road. The Little Creek blaze was under control in about 45 minutes, First Lt. Walter Henderson, of Ringgold Fire & Res-cue said. No homes were harmed in either incident, Mike Neal, Ringgold fire chief, said.
“In the end, nobody lost a home or lost a life,“ Neal said Sunday evening. “That was the main thing.“
Neal said the Ringgold Fire & Rescue received a call from dispatch at about 2 p.m. Sunday re-porting a fire at the 1500 block of Ferguson Road. Falling trees had sliced a power line and winds were blowing east about 35 miles per hour, Neal said.
Neal said the department had to send trucks up Ferguson to stay ahead of the fire, which spread toward Hillside and Countryside roads. The quick-moving flames threatened homes, and fire trucks were parked next to residences in the 1500 block of Hillside and the 900 block of Coun-tryside for protection, Neal said.
The fire seared its way through brush and spread among treetops, a process known as “crown-ing,“ Neal said.
The blaze destroyed an abandoned house, an old tobacco barn and another aged building in the 2000 block of Ferguson, about a half-mile from the fire’s origin, Neal said.
Neighbors and proprietors brought food and beverages to firefighters, Neal said.
Ringgold Fire & Rescue took a Kentuck Fire Department crew member to Danville Regional Medical Center after a small tree fell on him, hitting his head, Neal said. The man, whose name was unavailable, was dazed but conscious and alert before taken to the hospital for observation.
“As far as I know, there’s no life-threatening injuries,“ Neal said.
However, the incident shut down power in about 100 homes on Ferguson, Hillside and Ringgold Church roads, Neal said.
Around 3:30 p.m., a falling tree cut another power line along the 700 block of Little Creek Road, diverting firefighters from the Ferguson fire to the area, Henderson said. 
“I was on that fire (and) had to leave and come here,“ Henderson said, adding that Ringgold’s five fire trucks and two ambulances were at the fires.
“We have nothing in our building right now,“ he said. “We’re empty.“
Firefighters at various spots in both fires battled shifting winds.
“We’ve got so many fires going on, it’s hard to keep track,“ Henderson said at the scene at 784 Little Creek Road, where flames had approached within about eight feet of a trailer there.
Fire departments from Mount Hermon, Riverbend, Keeling, Kentuck and the city of Danville assisted Ringgold Fire & Rescue in fighting the blaze. The fire crossed Little Creek Road and threatened another residence. No one answered the door there.
Bryan Ridge, who lives at 784 Little Creek Road, said he called 911 after hearing a blast when the tree hit the power line.
“I was in shock,“ Ridge said. “I was glad it (the fire) didn’t get the house.“
Ridge’s wife, Jessica Ridge, took their 1-year-old daughter, Brianna, to her grandmother’s house, Jessica said.
Other residents said they heard an explosion just before the fire began.
“(It was) something you hear on television but hope you never see,“ Shannon Talley, who lives at 668 Little Creek Road, said.
“It was loud enough to shake the house,“ she added.
Talley said she heard the noise at about 3:35 p.m. while talking with her husband, Chris, in their bedroom and called 911.
Phil Butler, Talley’s father visiting from Louisa County, said winds were blowing so heavily in the other direction he knew the home was safe. 
“It wasn’t exactly a danger to this house,“ Butler said.
Butler said their phone line and Internet connection were down as a result.
During the state of emergency, the governor authorized the activation of Virginia National Guard personnel and equipment to assist with fighting wildfires.
Virginia Department of Transportation and Virginia State Police dealt with roads closed due to debris and smoke, according to the governor’s news release, while the Virginia Department of Emergency Management coordinated requests for assistance from local governments.
Contact John R. Crane at or (434) 791-7987.