Chesapeake – All airplanes landed at the Lawrence County Airpark Friday evening without incident in spite of a fire at the east end of the runway.

Monday, May 01, 2000

Chesapeake – All airplanes landed at the Lawrence County Airpark Friday evening without incident in spite of a fire at the east end of the runway. Chesapeake-Union Township and Burlington volunteer fire departments were alerted to the fire at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, said Gary Maynard, Chesapeake fire chief.

"There’s a (pile) of old trees down there," Maynard said. "Someone set it on fire. Burlington and our department both rolled on it and we did what we could."

Both departments tried to extinguish the blaze for more than two hours. Four planes were still in the air, and officials were concerned that the fire would obscure the runway, Maynard said.

"We were trying to keep the smoke away from the runway," he said. "Those planes come in so low on the east end. If there’s smoke across the runway, it would have been a little treacherous for the pilots. We were just lucky the wind was carrying it across the river. It wasn’t doing too bad."

Smoke and a few flames can still be seen today at the airpark, Maynard said.

"You would have to dig in there with a backhoe to get it all out," he said. "There were some stumps in there where they cut all kinds of trees down and piled them in there for years. It was six to eight feet high. It will probably smolder for a few days."

If the smoke becomes too heavy, though, Chesapeake and Burlington departments will return to the scene to renew the battle against the fire, Maynard said.

"The airport officials will let us know if it starts interfering with their runways," he said.