New Jersey Season not wasting any time

[AsstEngineer292]

Well it's getting warmer and breezier out everyone, yesterday my county had over 40 brush/rubbish/forestry fire calls yesterday,looks like this seasons going to be a long one.

[NJFFSA16]

Yeah, tell me about it. Red flag conditions last Friday....and consistent humidity values bordering on single digits. That's quite unusual for April climatology here (Bergen County) The missing ingredient right now....wind. Should we get 30 mph winds any time this week.....you could see catastrophic fires throughout the state. And, we are rich in wildland urban interface.

The Rockaway borough wildfire on Friday nearly took out homes on the ridgetop. As it turned out, crews were able to limit damage to 2 outbuildings and a scorched deck behind one of the homes. Kudos to the crews on the Class A engines from the structural depts, and a big thank you to the AgCat pilots from Division A, along with Huey, Delta 5.

By the way....the RH at 11pm Sunday evening was an incredible 14%. Quite unusual for overnight values here. Fuel moisture? Forget about it!

NJFFSA16
New Jersey Forest Fire Engine A16

[NJFFSA16]

I stand corrected....the RH bottomed out at 8% at 17:10 hrs on April 17th....at the RAWS station located in Ringwood, NJ.

Bert Plante! Are you ready for some wildfire?

[Bones42]

and just a few short weeks ago, flooding all over the place.

[hwoods]

Up to my kazoo in Fire, or so it seemed today. 4 jobs, quick inital attack and our standard aggressive approach kept all four to a few acres each. Yesterday, one Fire went to 22 acres in a short time. Haven't had this nuch fun in years.:D

[cbp333]

Yep, I'm not dead, merely waking from hibernation!
Fire season approacheth, and we get reminded with a fire that's supposed to burn 260 acres once burnout is completed, instead jumps the Mullica River in south jersey (no mean feat!), and runs to 325 acres during the evening of 4/20. Now, that just ain't right! The Forest Fire Service is supposed to kick the fire, not the other way around!
An A16, what's the deal with North Bergen? Can't you introduce them to a backfire torch, instead of bringing the afternoon commute from NYC nearly to a halt today?
If we don't get much rain out of tonight's frontal passage, cooler temperatures won't help us a bit.
We're closing in on 300 fires in the last 10 days here. Not bad for a stretch of 14 days w/o rain, eh?
See y'all at the "big one"

[NJFFSA16]

Light a backfire in the NJ Meadowlands? Oh my...what would the troopers think! They might arrest us for arson.;)

Bert, under perfect conditions, I would have no problem with using drip torches as a tactic for that area, however it is much more difficult than it seems. Most of the area is inaccessible by vehicle, or foot for that matter...and the winds are so unpredictable....it's a difficult call. If one had an observation platform to examine the maze of waterways, roads, railroad tracks, powerlines and airport approaches...it might be done successfully.

Caution is the key word here. It's definitely a Catch 22 situation there. I think back to the lawsuit that resulted from a fire in the same area, during the Scardo era. If one could guarantee complete cooperation with the troopers...in shutting down traffic for a period of time...then a driptorch attempt might be feasible. On the other hand...introducing more fire and smoke, without having roadways shut down, could cause more problems than we bargained for.

Alpha 2 could not locate the fire...due to poor visibility. (Haze)Neither Ramapo or Greystone could see the smoke...so the pilot was unable to fly to a specific location. A GPS unit on the ground would have been helpful. A5 did not have one, as far as I know. I have 2 on A16...however I was committed to patrol of Section 2 at the time.

In any event....it's something to consider discussing further with local Meadowland officials.

Be safe....it's going to be an interesting couple of days until precip arrives.

A16

[AsstEngineer292]

Just posting some things I've found out.

As of 11AM April 21st 2005

Wharton-State Forest Fire

They set backfires used to stop the spread of the flames.

The backfires seem to be doing their job. Wednesday night, the fire looked bigger, and the winding backfires had a much greater area to tackle.

Late Wednesday night officials said they had contained about 80-percent of the blaze.

The fire has scorched about 325 acres.

This Image was taken 5:00PM April 20th 2005 by a Local News Chopper

[NJFFSA16]

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - Firefighters contained New
Jersey's first major forest fire of the year early Thursday, but
not until it had grown to about 325 acres.
Fire Warden Mike Gabliks said the blaze was completely contained
by about 2 a.m. Thursday.
Fire crews were to remain on the scene to contend with any
flaring hot spots.
Before dark Wednesday, the fire service had about 50 workers and
fire trucks, bulldozers, three planes and a helicopter fighting the
fire in Waterford Township, about 25 miles southeast of
Philadelphia. The blaze covered about 30 acres when first
discovered around 9 a.m. Wednesday and spread to about 260 acres by
nightfall.
A water and foam mixture was dumped on the fire from the ground
and from the air, and swaths of forest were set alight in
controlled burns to strip the area of fuel for the blaze.
About half the controlled burns were complete by the afternoon,
but work proved more difficult by the evening as firefighters moved
into a swampy area.
The fire was contained before winds Thursday became a problem
for firefighters.
The cause of the fire was not immediately determined.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

CBP...what were the stats for this brief dry spell?