Wildfire activity in New Jersey: April 16th to 18th

Last Friday (April 15th) I wrote about the Raritan Arsenal fire, a 30 acre marsh fire that burned in Edison NJ on April 15th. There has been more wildfire activity in New Jersey over the weekend, here is what I know about. I am sure that there has been other wildfire activity that I do not know about.

• Phillips Bog Wildfire, Shamong Twshp, Wharton State Forest, Burlington County. The fire is burning near Quaker Bridge Road approximately two miles east of the Atsion Ranger Station. NJFFS Section B1 is working the fire.According to the latest update (6:30 PM on April 17th) from my friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page, the wildfire has burned 133 acres. Tankers Bravo 1 and Charlie 1 and Helo Delta 7 with bucket worked this fire and it is 75 percent contained. There are no structures in the area. Report from the Press of Atlantic City with a video (Delta 7 dipping). From my friends at Downstown Aero Crop Services: FB post reporting that Charlie 1 made 10 drops on the fire and a second post of a slow motion video of Charlie 1 dropping (about 30 seconds in).
• On April 16th, NJFFS Section A2 contained a 60 acre wildfire, Ramapo Reservation in Mahwah, Bergen County.  Helo Delta 5 with a bucket made several drops on the fire (reported by B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page. Here is a FB post from NJFFS Section A2 with some more information, they report that mop-up work continued on April 17th with burning snags within containment lines, numerous spot fires and long flame lengths.
• Finally, my friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page reported on April 18th at 8:30 AM that NJFFS Section B8 crews have contained the 10-acre (after burnout) Manasquan River WMA wildfire. The wildfire was located off of Sally Ike Rd. behind the Silvi Concrete Plant in Brick Twshp (Ocean County). Asbury Park Press article.

Thanks to all NJ Forest Fire Service wildland firefighters, mutual aid firefighters, contract SEATs, and NJFFS helos with buckets for keeping us safe.

Fire weather watches in place for portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern USA, including New Jersey for the afternoon of April 19th, I just posted an article on this here.

Note: The B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page) has a section on their main page (about 1/3rd of the way down the main page on current NJ wildfire activity. This section is updated frequently, what you see may be different.