Up until September of 1995, I don’t recall ever seeing the aftermath of a wild fire (forest fire) up close and personal. Nor had one impacted me the way that what I will call the Kitattiny Ridge Fire did. I say impacted me because we did quite a bit of day hiking that summer and fall, and the Kitattiny Ridge (north of the Delaware Water Gap) was one of our favorite destinations. What follows are my recollections, with acreage burned and dates taken from newspaper reports.
Memory is a funny thing. I want to say that I have clear memories of the summer of 1995 being an extraordinarily dry summer, due to a somewhat prolonged drought. What I can say is that since I have been reading and learning about wild fires over the last several weeks, I am much more aware that extraordinarily dry conditions are one of the precursors of wild fires. Knowing this, I can replay my memory tapes from that summer of 1995 and know that it was only a matter of time before something happened. I think that I recall that most, if not all, of the parks, forests, and recreation areas prohibited campfires that summer.
I recall hearing and reading about a fire on the Kittatinny Ridge, north of the Delaware Water Gap when the news broke. See the image (from Google Earth) showing the approach to the Kitatinny Ridge from I-80 and the location of the fire (about two to three miles north of I-80 on the Ridge or just south of the two bodies of water.
A few weeks ago, I found a New York Times article dated Saturday, September 2 1995 jogged my memory. According to this article, the fire started on Thursday morning, August 31 near a camping area along the Appalachian Trail. Twelve hours later, firefighters had held the fire to about 90 acres. Then, sometimes Thursday night or early Friday morning, Mother Nature intervened in the form of a cold front and associated winds. The fire jumped control lines. The New York Times reported the fire as being “out of control.” By Friday afternoon (Sept. 1) somewhere around 300 acres had burned.
If memory serves, the fire was straining the resources of the local fire crews. At the time, I was not aware of the existence of the NJ Forest Fire Service, but I expect that they were involved in fighting this fire. I only remember thinking –– with a sense of respect –– that most of the local fire departments were (and still are) volunteer squads. I knew that there was a real battle going on the ridge between the fire and those who were fighting the fire. I remembering hearing media reports that resources from out of state, probably from adjoining states came to help us fight the fire.
I had an idea where the fire was, it was on the top of the ridge, and a few miles of the Appalachian Trail were closed down. I wondered how bad the damage was. I suspected, perhaps from television and newspaper accounts of the fire, that the fire had human origins.
In a NY Times article dated, September 5, 1995 (a Tuesday), it was reported that the fire was brought under control, but not yet contained, on Sunday, Sept. 3. The final tally, per the NY Times was about 750 acres burned.
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