The dry summer of 1995

I remember the dry summer of 1995. We were doing quite a bit of day hiking that summer and I was aware of the ban on camp fires in the areas were we hiked. Not because we did overnight hiking and were camping out, but because I paid attention to news reports on the effects of the drought. In addition, in areas where we were frequent hikers, I recall noticing low or dried–up streams.

I knew enough to know that dry conditions meant fire danger. Two fires that summer are fixed in my memory. The first fire was a fire that burned the Long Island Pine Barrens, I later realized the fire was known as the Sunrise Fire. The media reports of the Sunrise Fire made an impression on me because eastern Long Island was a second home for me. In all the years that I spent living first in New York City and later in New Jersey, I heard about fires in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey but I don’t recall hearing media reports of fires in the Long Island Pine Barrens. I’ll write more about this fire and its aftermath in a little more detail in later blog entries.

The second fire burned a few hundred acres in the kittatiny ridge in New Jersey, in an area where we frequently hiked. This fire, of suspicious origins, started after the Sunrise Fire. Stay tuned for more on this fire, especially its aftermath.