New Jersey wildfires for the week ended April 27, 2014

I knew that there would be an impressive amount of acreage burned here in New Jersey last week (week ended April 27). Each week, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service posts figures for acreage burned to date for the most week ended on Sunday (acreage burned and number of wildfires) with comparisons to the prior year. Regular readers will know that I update these figures frequently on the right side of this blog. I have been waiting for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service to release figures for the week ended April 27, which I found earlier today.

The figures for the most recent two weeks are:

Jan 1 through April 20, 2014: 377 fires -- 2,194.5 acres burned. Comparison to 2013: 383 fires, 648.25 acres burned.

Jan 1 through April 27, 2014: 488 fires -- 6,225.85 acres burned. Comparison to 2013: 464 fires, 750.25 acres burned.

Here are some figures that I noted for wildfires that I know about that burned last week, numbers may be approximate. I think, but am not sure, that Alpha 3 worked the fire on Tuesday in Vernon Twsp. I have written elsewhere (for example, see the article I wrote on April 28) about each of the other wildfires, that one or more SEATs flew four of the five remaining wildfires. I'm not certain if a SEAT flew the Crossroads Wildfire.

Tuesday, April 22

Vernon Twsp (Division A) 75 acres 

Wednesday, April 23

Railroad Wildfire (C3, Down Twp) 1,500 acres

Thursday , April 24

Continental (B7, Beachwood/Berkeley Twsp) 307 acres

Crossroads (B7, Berkeley Twsp) 219 acres

White Oak (Division C) 569 acres

Friday, April 25

Springers Brook (B1, Shamong Twsp) 200 acres

Total acreage burned in these six wildfires of 2,870 acres. Looking at the two most recent weeks of year to date figures for acreage burned from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service: 6,225.75 (4/27) minus 2,194.5 (4/20) yields 4,031.25 acres burned for the week ended April 27. The six fires that I highlighted above (roughly 2,870 acres burned) represent 71.2 percent of the acreage burned that week. 

Consider the Degolia Wildfire which burned approximately 800 acres in Waterford Township, Camden County NJ (Section C6). The fire was reported on Sunday April 27th, and contained a day or so later. I don't know if the NJFFS counts a fire as burning in the week the fire started or the week the fire is contained. So, I decided to include this fire in a separate paragraph.

I'd love to compare acreage burned for the week ended April 27 to total acreage burned in prior years, but while I have some rough figures from numbers I've recorded back to 2010, they are not be accurate. So I'm not going to do such an analysis. Suffice it to say, the over 4,000 acres burned in one week is a lot of acreage. No, not any kind of record, no where near that. But a lot of acreage burned nonetheless. 

Definitely a week that I'll remember.