I'd like to thank my friend from New Jersey Forest Fire Service Section B10 for reminding me about Black Saturday in NJ on April 23, 1963 when some 37 wildfires began to burn out of control. No, I was not living in NJ at the time, but I suspect that if I was I would probably have known that something was going on.
I first became aware of the April 1963 wildfires from John McPhee's 1968 book, The Pine Barrens. It is still in print and I will recommend in a heart beat for any of you who wants to read about the NJ Pine Barrens. McPhee has a chapter on Fire in the Pines (Chapter 7). He writes about fires in the Pine Barrens including a 1936 wildfire where the cousin of a fire watcher having no place to escape to died holding on to a pine tree (111).
McPhee writes about the wild fires that burned in the Pine Barrens in April 1963, here is an excerpt:
The men who fought the fire made stand after stand--first at a state highway and later at county roads, sand roads, and plowed lines--only to have the flames burst over them and force them to regroup further east. Embers went into the upper winds and advanced as much as two miles at a jump, starting new fires where they landed. Several crown fires were spread out over a six-mile front, and rolling white heat was trailed by streaks of orange flame. The fire was so hot that it caused the surfaces of macadam roads to form bubbles. Overhead, white piles of smoke went up hundreds of feed, and against this white background, now and again, appeared black twisters of smoke from pitch. Multliple airdrops were made but did not significantly help (McPhee, 1988 paperback edition, p. 117).
Please take a moment to ride a very fine article on Black Saturday in NJ, April 23, 1963. To read more about John McPhee and how his book on the Pine Barrens lead to a movement to save the Pine Barrens, read this article.
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