2019 wildfire season: two recent wildfires in NJ

I had been thinking recently that in many parts of the United States that it is always wildfire season. Further, I had also been thinking that wildfires often can and do crop up outside of the usual wildfire season, which for New Jersey is in the spring before the trees leaf out and then later in the fall. And of course a prolonged dry spell or drought can increase the risk of wildfires. Lastly, wildfires can and do happen on days when there is no elevated fire danger or red flag warnings. It always pays to be prepared.

This past weekend I found out about two wildfires in central and southern New Jersey that occurred over a week ago. What can I say? I was not keeping up with my usual internet sources of wildfire information from the NJ Forest Fire Service. Having been suitably embarrassed, I am being more diligent in checking out my sources on a regular basis. Not that I will hear about every wildfire in New Jersey, as I don't usually hear about the frequent small wildfires that are quickly contained.

I want to thank my friends from the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 where I saw information on these two fires last weekend. Their website has since been updated but I will refer you to their tweets.

Mordecai Swamp Fire: This wildfire was first reported either June 4th or June 5th, I am not quite sure, in a remote area of the Warton State Forest in Washington Township, Burlington County NJ. The fire burned approximately 90 acres. No houses were affected and there were no injuries. The fire was declared 100 percent contained on June 13th. See these June 5th and 6th tweets from the NJFFS Section B10 Twitter Page.

The Jack Swamp Fire was fire reported on either June 8th or June 9th, I think it was on June 9th. This wildfire was near the Burlington-Camden County border just southwest of Atsion Lake. Route 206 near Hammonton was closed for awhile (two tweets from the NJFFS Section B10 Twitter on June 9th that may be found here. The Jack Swamp Fire burned in a remote area, no structures were threatened and there were no injuries. I understand that a helicopter flew the fire, but I do not know if it had a bucket or if it was observation only. The fire was reported as being 100 percent contained on June 10th, see this June 10th tweet from the NJFFS Section B10 (with video from Fox 29 in Philadelphia). The NJ FFS monitored this wildfire for at least a couple of days after it was contained until rainfall fully extinguished the wildfire. The cause of this wildfire is under investigation.