Spring fire season begins in NJ And PA

New Jersey

Yesterday was the first day that the NJ Forest Fire Service SEATs were on contract for our spring fire season. I was out and about doing some personal chores yesterday afternoon so was not home listening to online scanner feed from the NJ Forest Fire Service (NJFFS Division B online scanner feed,  NJFFS Division C online scanner feed). It was a nice early spring day and I saw evidence that the top layers of the soil had or were drying out after the rains last weekend. As I was driving around, I tuned into WCBS AM (880) and heard a short report, all of perhaps 30 seconds, that there were a few brush fires burning around the region (northern NJ, NYC and adjoining counties including Long Island) and eastern CT). I heard nothing more than that. I wondered if any of the NJFFS SEATs had dropped on a fire in support of the firefighters on the ground. 

I got my answer when I went to Section B10 webpage earlier this afternoon and learned of a nine acre fire that burned in Sussex County NJ off of U.S. Route 206, an area that I've driven by a few times. NJFFS Alpha 3 (Ag Cat) and Delta 6 (helicopter and bucket) worked the fire. In addition, there was a smaller fire elsewhere in Sussex County that took less than 30 minutes to contain according to this report from the NJ Herald.

New Jersey Herald

direct link to video and report from NJ Herald

Pennsylvania

Spring fire season is, or soon will be underway in Pennsylvania, my neighboring State to the west. Here four stories that I heard about courtesy of Wildfire News of the Day:

A trash fire got out of control, burning a couple of acres in Ormsby, PA on April 1 reported by The Bradford Era on April 2, 2014.

A 2.5 acre wildfire  in Blacklick Twsp., PA on March 31 required a few municipal fire companies before the fire was brought under control, from the Indiana Gazette.

I wrote here about Air Tractor 802's Single Engine Air-Tankers that are now on contract in Pennsylvania. I learned from  this article from the Daily American that there is a helitanker at the Somerset County Airport in Pennsylvania.

Finally, there was a nice article in the Bradford Era on April 1 saying that the spring wildfire season in Pennsylvania may be short in some parts of the State because the snow hung around through most of March in the northwestern part of the State. I also learned about the ways the snow melts and how it can affect wildfire danger.