Kudos to the NJ Forest Fire Service

Well I go away for a few days and came back to heightened fire concerns here in NJ. I reported in the NJ Forest Fire Service section on the right side of this page about two major fires, a 900-acre fire over the weekend, and a 400-acre. And this is a few weeks after the end of our spring fire season in NJ, and the last of the SEATs went off contract in the middle of May.

Now I go to either the NJFFS Section B-10 website or the NJ Forest Fire Service webpage to get fire stats, at least for most weeks. And I keep a spreadsheet with the numbers. So according to my spreadsheet, from Jan 1 through June 13,1,600.75 acres burned. The math on the two fires that I spoke of is simple, 1,300 acres burned in a few days in late June. During a dry spell. Now the acreage burned that I report for this week, 2,553.75 acres burned does not include the 400-acre fire that I spoke of. That fire began on Monday at Ft. Dix. Nor does it include the other, probably numerous smaller fires that have kept the NJ Forest Fire Service Crews busy the last couple of days.

And things may not get better before next week, as we continue with dry weather through next week. I will be making daily posts early in the AM reporting on that days fire weather, so check out that section on the right side each day.

If you check out this post on the wildlandfire hotlist, you will see that Division B of the NJFFS is going to level 1 patrols starting tomorrow and at the same time is moving to stage 1 campfire restrictions.

I believe that the fire in the video is a brush fire in the Lakewood, NJ area on June 24.

I post this today to thank all in the NJ Forest Fire Service who work so hard to keep us safe here in NJ. Nice job everyone. Stay safe and know that you are appreciated.