2019 wildfire season: NJ Forest Fire Service Crew in Alaska (July 17th)

I continue to follow NJFFS A2 Firefighters Association's coverage of NJS Crew #1 in Alaska on the Grouse Creek Fire, see my earlier post of July 16th. Here is an excerpt from the NJFFS A2 Firefighters Association July 17th update of about 10:30 AM EDT, they are referring to a late night (July 16th) report from Alaska:

Ninety-five people are assigned to the Grouse Creek and Twin Pond fires, which are burning about 6 miles northeast of Rampart. The two fires have burned together and are estimated at 7,750 acres combined. … Structure assessment and protection around the village of Rampart is complete and is continuing on the north edge of the fire and at the nearby mine. The Incident Management Team is finalizing an evacuation plan, should an evacuation become necessary, and the structure protection plan.

NJFFS A2 has accessed and incorporates daily intelligence situation reports and other information about the Grouse Creek Fire from the Alaska Interagency Fire Center in their reporting. This takes a bit of time to go and fetch it and I appreciate their efforts.

The NJ Forest Fire Service posted a report and photo of NJS Crew #1 in Alaska on July 16th; they wrote that this was the first time a NJFFS crew has been deployed to Alaska.

NJFFS Section B10 is also covering the fire on their Facebook page.

The only local reporting from the New Jersey region of the NJS Crew #1 that I know of to date is from NJ Advance Media (aka NJ.com) who published an article on July 17th.

My thoughts are with the NJS Crew #1 as they work the Grouse Point and Twin Pond Fires in Alaska. Thank-you for honoring New Jersey with your service. Stay safe.

Updated on July 17th at 7PM

The NJFFS A2 Firefighters Association posted two more articles today. In the first article (about 2PM) they shared that the Grouse Creek Fire is now at 8,500 acres. In another article, that they just posted, they share a picture of NJS 1 Crew (courtesy of Donna Storch) unloaded an airplane at the Rampart Airport. The photo and another short update on the Grouse Creek Fire is found in a longer article (dated July 17th) on the Alaska Wildland Fire Info Website about fires burning in the Tanana district of Alaska, where the Grouse Creek Fire is currently burning, you will have scroll down to read the piece about the Grouse Creek Fire with Ms. Storch's photo. Note, I am not sure how long this link with the article will be valid.

Updated on July 31 2019: the links to the Facebook posts from the NJFFS A2 Firefighters Association are no longer active. Other sources of information are the daily situation reports from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center (AICC), and Alaska Fire Info (daily updates during fire season).