Virginia fire chief and congressman press for emergency egress authority to prevent entrapment in wildfires
Summary
Representative Maguire and Chief Curtis Sheets argued for H.R. 6,365 to allow a short emergency-only gravel corridor across National Park Service land to connect Wintergreen to the Blue Ridge Parkway and reduce risk of catastrophic entrapment.
Representatives and local fire officials urged the House subcommittee to advance H.R. 6,365, the Wintergreen Emergency Egress Act, arguing the Wintergreen community in Virginia currently has a single road in and out and would face high loss of life in the event of a fast-moving wildfire.
Representative Bob Good (Representative Maguire in transcript) said the town "has only one road in and the same road out," and framed the bill as a narrowly tailored, emergency-only measure to connect the community to the Blue Ridge Parkway by a short gravel corridor across approximately 430 feet of parkland. He described the bill as a "common sense solution that is vital to prevent a tragedy."
Chief Curtis Sheets described the community's long effort to secure an egress and summarized environmental and species studies paid for by the town. He used a visual analogy to emphasize small scale—comparing the necessary corridor to the size of a football end zone—and said the local studies find the environmental impact "so close to 0 that statistically speaking, it is 0." He urged members not to wait for a tragedy to act.
Members asked about Department of Interior objections and environmental tradeoffs; witnesses said the corridor has been vetted in studies but that Interior has been steadfast in preserving park resources. No formal action was taken at the hearing.
