Historic Wildfire: NJ Pine Barrens, April 20, 1963

From time to time I reflect on the historic wildfires that burned about 190,000 acres in Southern New Jersey on April 20 1963, much of it in the Pine Barrens. I wrote about these wildfires in an article I wrote on April 17, 2014. These April 1963 wildfires came to mind again today, 55 years later as I read an article from the Press of Atlantic City dated April 20, 2018. In April 1963, Carl Owen, now 75, was a 19-year old volunteer firefighter in Mays Landing NJ when these wildfires broke out. Owen spoke about the fire conditions of that April day in 1963 to the Press of Atlantic City:

Conditions were ripe for a disastrous fire the morning of April 20, 1963. 

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service fire danger readings "were at the top of the scale" said Owen. "They couldn't get any higher" because of dry conditions and a strong westerly wind.

An April 16, 2014 article in the Burlington County Times (also referenced in my April 17, 2014 blog post) provides a little more detail on the fire weather conditions April 20, 1963:

The day began with disastrous weather conditions. 

While fire danger in the New Jersey Pines is almost always high because of the region's sandy soils and hard pitch pines, the conditions in the weeks leading up to April 20 [1963] were historically bad as barely more than a half-inch of rain fell in all of March and April, leaving the underbrush that often carpets New Jersey's pine forests bone dry, the perfect kindling to start a wildfire.

Wind gusts topped 30 to 40 mph, creating the perfect recipe for a fire to form and spread from the smallest spark.

New Jersey Forest Fire Service Chief Greg McLaughlin spoke of these dry conditions in April 1963 to the Press of Atlantic City:

"How far a fire travels and how fast it spreads is impacted by weather," said McLaughlin. 

"The 1963 fire was traveling at an extreme rate, in some cases 4.5 miles an hour. With our tactics we estimate we can handle fires traveling a quarter-to-a-half-mile an hour." ... 

"Can it spread that fast again? Absolutely."

I encourage you to read both the April 16, 2014 article in the Burlington County Times and the article in the Press of Atlantic City dated April 20, 2018. They are short articles, the Burlington County Times article has some photos.

A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me about the fire ecology and the sandy soils of the NJ Pine Barrens. I like the response provided by John McPhee in his 1967 book, The Pine Barrens:

Standing in all that dry sand, the forests glisten with oils and resins that—to some people—seem to beg for flame. Oak leaves in forests that are damp and rich are different from Pine Barrens oak leaves, which have so much protective oil concentrated within them that they appear to be made of shining green leather. The ground soaks up rainfall so efficiently that the litter on its surface is, more often than not, as dry as paper. In the sand soil, there are no earthworms and few bacteria to consume the litter, and it piles up three and four inches deep. In all, the Pine Barrens respond explosively to flame ... {McPhee, The Pine Barrens,  (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, 1967: p. 114)}

In closing, I hope that you take a couple of minutes to watch this video from the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, they have a nice webpage on Fire in the Pines with photos and a link to a nice video that I hope you watch.