2020 New Jersey Forest Fire Service prescribed burning season is underway

I have noted over the last couple of weeks that the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) had been conducting prescribed burns at some locations around the state for a couple of weeks now, perhaps because the weather had been favorable.  Now it is official, in a press release dated February 25th, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service talked about their prescribed burning program, the press release may be found here. The press release speaks to the importance of prescribed burns and why the NJFFS does them in the late winter months:

Prescribed burns, also known as controlled burns, are generally conducted during late winter months to reduce the amount of smoke produced and because weather conditions tend to be more predictable for safer controlled fires. The lack of snow and ice on the ground so far this winter gives the Forest Fire Service a good start on conducting controlled burns to reduce wildfire risk. 

“Controlled burns have a number of benefits for our forests and ecosystems,” said Ray Bukowski, Assistant Commissioner for Natural and Historic Resources. “In addition to burning away materials that can fuel wildfires, controlled burns can improve wildlife habitats, manage competing species of plants and trees, control insects and disease, and recycle important nutrients into the soil. All of these activities help keep New Jersey’s forest ecosystem vibrant and healthy.” 

During prime wildfire season, fallen leaves, branches and twigs are abundant, daylight increases, humidity can be low, and the air is often warm and windy. These weather conditions coupled with lack of new leaf growth makes the debris on forest floors more susceptible to the drying effects of wind and sun.

On February 24th,  some NJFFS  wildland firefighters in Division A were fighting the Rock Face Fire in the Delaware Water Gap of New Jersey, other NJFFS wildland firefighters were doing prescribed burns elsewhere in the state, see this February 24th Facebook post by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. One of those prescribed burns was done in the Mercer Meadows near Lawrenceville in Mercer County, New Jersey.

New Jersey Advance Media sent a reporter to the Pole Farm area of Mercer Meadows to report on this prescribed burn in a February 25th article (with photos and the video that I am embedding below). Jillian Stark of the Mercer County Park Commission had this to say about the benefits of this prescribed burn for this grassland: "Over time, the thatch layer acts as a barrier to new seed growth will increase the floral diversity here."


Direct link to New Jersey Advance Media video on Youtube

Reflections on SEATs (800 gallon tanks)

I have always had a lot of respect for Single Engine Airtankers (SEATs). Perhaps it is because SEATs were among the first type of tankers that I wrote about when I began this blog eleven years ago. Or perhaps it is because the New Jersey State Forest Fire Service contracts with SEATs for the spring wildfire season.

For this article, I am offering my reflections on SEATs with 800 gallon retardant tanks, many of whom were on some sort of national contract.Then there are the SEATs that are on State contracts. I think that some of these SEATs with 800 gallong tanks are Air Tractor 802F SEATs with the amphibious model being the Air Tractor 802F Fire Boss.

There are a lot of videos out there showing various aspects of SEAT operations in support of the wildland firefighters on the ground and I have shared many on my blog over the years, some more than once. Most of what I know about SEATs are from these videos along with some assorted newspaper and tv reports that I have seen over the years. I have a lot of respect for what the SEATs can do, sometimes I have seen them operate in pairs, bring twice the retardant capability to help the wildland firefighters on the ground. They do not require long landing strips. I suspect, but am not certain that they can operate off of dirt or turf strip if need be.

I know that the little that I know through watching videos and reading some articles only scratches the surface of what these SEATs can do. I applaud these gutsy smaller tankers that have a big heart. Kudos to their pilots and their support team.

Here are two videos for your enjoyment, at least you may have already seen ar least one of these videos on this blog. But reruns are always good.

The first video is from the Lake County Examiner in Oregon, an eight minute video report from the SEAT base with some discussions with SEAT pilots. I enjoyed the discussion of base operations as well as the insights of the SEAT pilots.


Direct link to video on Youtube

The second video is a little over two minutes taken from the cockpit of a SEAT over a  February 2018 wildfire in Texas.


Direct link to video on Youtube

2020 New Jersey Wildfires: Rock Face Fire almost contained

Obtained on February 25, 2020 from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service Facebook Page

There is good news about the Rock Face Fire, started  on Sunday afternoon February 23rd on Mt. Tammany in Worthington State Forest in New Jersey, (see my February 24th article). It remains at 80 acres burned and at last report is at 95 percent containment. In addition it has been raining on off since February 25th and more rain is in the forecast for tonight. See these news report from Lehigh Valley Live and WFMZ News 69 for more information.

My thanks to the wildland firefighters who had to hike up to the fire because it was inaccessible to their engines and to the pilot of Delta5 who made water drops on the fire. Thanks for keeping us safe, your work is appreciated.

2020 New Jersey Wildfires: Rock Face Fire, Worthington State Forest (Feb 24)

February 24th 5:45 PM

WFMZ News 69 in Allentown Pennsylvania is reporting that the Rock Face Fire is now at 80 acres and is at 80 percent containment. Officials with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service say that the fire will not be fully contained until there has been one-half inch of rain. There were about 40 wildland firefighters working the fire aided by water drops by a helicopter, probably Delta 5. The News 69 article had an interesting report on behavior of the Rock Face Fire.

Chris Franek, the state forest fire service's assistant division fire warden, said fires on similar terrain usually burn upward but that Sunday's fire, which started below a trail at an elevation of about 1,400 feet burned downhill because the trail area is rocky and without abundant vegetation. He said fires are rare there at this time of year because the area usually has a layer of snow.

According to LehighValleyLive in an article (with a photo gallery) updated today at 4:11 PM, there was a 3 PM conference call with Chris Franek, the NJFFS Assistant Division State Warden:

Though the fire and emergency response closed some of the trails to the summits overlooking the Delaware River in northern Warren County, the blaze mostly affected brush and fallen leaves and appeared to spare the wooded parklands any serious, lasting damage. 

“It was almost like a rejuvenation process” clearing undergrowth from the woods, said Chris Franek, an assistant division fire warden with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, during a 3 p.m. conference call updating media on the operation’s status.

February 24th 8:40 AM revised 11 AM

The Rock Face Fire started on February 23rd near the Red Dot Trail on Mt. Tammany. The command post is at the Dunnfield Creek Parking lot off of Interstate 80 West just before you cross into Pennsylvania. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service Huey Helicopter known as Delta 5 worked the fire yesterday afternoon until night fall shut her down. I understand that wildland firefighters from the NJ Forest Fire Service as well as the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area are fighting the fire. This is a fire that requires wildland firefighters to hike in to fight the fire. Approximately 70 acres have burned.

When I was younger with better knees, I hiked up Mt. Tammany on the Red Dot Trail, it is a very nice trail and it is quite steep in spots. The State Forest and the Delaware Water Gap Recreation area are open, but trails in the area are closed to hiking. Interstate 80 is open with one lane blocked.

Thank-you to my friends from NJFFS Section B10 who made me aware of this wildfire this morning.

I do not know the exact location of the Rock Face Fire, but I do want to share a screen shot from Google Earth of the area where the fire is.  You will see the trail head for the red dot trail up Mt. Tammany in New Jersey. I believe that the incident command center is a parking area just to the west of the red dot trail head.

Information on the Rock Face Fire

Monday Morning (February 24th) update from Section A3 District Wardens Association Facebook Page

LehighValleyLive (February 24th)

WFMZ News 69 (Allentown PA) report with photos and video (February 24th)
More photos from the Section A3 Wardens Facebook Page may be found here, here, here and here

These videos that I am sharing below were posted on the Section A3 Wardens Facebook Page, depending on your privacy settings and the browser you are using, you may not see the videos. But you may find the video of the Delta 5 may be found here and a short video of the wildfire taken on the evening of February 23rd may be found here.

NSW Rural Fire Service says thank-you in a big way

I was very moved when I saw this video on the NSW Rural Fire Service Facebook Page earlier today. The Ad Agency Silvercast Media paid for the ad spaceon the large billboard in Times Square in Manhattan, New York City. If you do not see the video from Facebook embedded below, check out the above referenced link. For more information see

1010 WINS NYC 
CNN

Airtanker video: view from a SEAT cockpit (2012 fire season)

With Monday's post on DC-7 Tanker 62 I am resuming doing background work leading to what I hope will be more reflections on different airtankers. Hopefully this background work won't take too long.

In the meantime, I offer you a four minute video from the 2012 fireseason taken from the cockpit of a SEAT working that years wildfires. It is likely that I have shared this video at some point over the last six years, if so it is worth seeing again.


Direct link to video on Youtube

Reflections on DC-7 Tanker 62

A little over 10 years ago, I had seen a few references on the internet to Douglas DC-7 aircraft that were (and still are) used as tankers. I had always been interested in the Douglas series of aircraft, so I asked an aviation historian friend and former tanker pilot if he could help me find more information on the DC-7 Tankers. To make a long story short, he introduced me to Larry Kraus over e-mail who was the Captain (Pilot-in-Command) of T-62, under contract with the State of Oregon. What followed was an e-mail correspondence lasting about six to eight months.



Through this e-mail correspondence, Larry, who had been the PIC of T-62 for some 20 years by this time, took me up close and personal inside the DC-7 through his photos and our correspondence. He showed me the controls of the aircraft, inside and out, including the controls for dropping retardant, see this article I wrote in December 2009 for the summary of the first series I wrote, up close and personal with a DC-7 tanker. That series included several articles with some of Larry's wonderful photos of T-62. I offer it as a reference for those of you who might be interested in spending some time learning about the DC-7 tanker. I believe that T-62 continues to fly under contract with the State of Oregon with a different PIC as I believe that Larry has since retired.

I am very grateful for the time that Larry spent with me over e-mail, I can adequately describe how much I learned from Larry. He was kind and patient, answering my many questions. Thank-you Larry! I am no longer in touch with Larry, but his words and photos have stayed with me over the years. I understand that each type of tanker will operate a differently, but he did give me a good introduction to what it is like to fly fires.

Of the many articles that I wrote about T-62 with Larry’s help, the one that I hope you look at is a series that I wrote in March 2010, DC-7 Tankers in Action. I had sent him a video of T-62 and her sister DC-7 Tanker, T-66.  Larry took some time, checking his logs and some photos from a lead plane, to describe what we were seeing in the video, where he annotated some of these photos. The result was this series on DC-& Tankers in Action. But first please take a couple of minutes to read this article where Larry described how he worked with a lead plane

National Weather Service turned 150 years this week

This week the National Weather Service turned 150 years old. Wow. J


Direct link to video on Youtube.

Regular followers of this blog know how much I respect the work of the National Weather Service, from our local Weather Forecast Offices -- mine is NWS Philadephia/Mt. Holly to the River Forecast Centers with a special shout out to the Mid-Atlantic River Forecast Center to the Storm Prediction Center to the Hurricane Center and to the NWS Incident Meteorologists. And this list only a partial list of all the National Weather Service does for us here in the United States. In celebration of their 150 years of service the National Weather Service has a NWS Heritage webpage chock full of links with history of the NWS, stories, and links to local Weather Forecast Offices, River Forecast Centers and other Service Units. You may go here for a brief NWS Heritage Fact Sheet

Words of thanks to all at the National Weather Service for all you do to keep us safe don't seem adequate. That being said, I thank-you with a smile on my face.


Direct link to thank-you video on Youtube.

IMETs in Australia: Interview with IMET deployed in late 2019

While the recent rains in Australia have helped the efforts of firefighters on the ground to put out the bush fires in some areas of Australia (see my February 10th article) I believe that NWS Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) continue to deployed to Australia. I know that they are important work to help out the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

A few days ago, I was very interested to read a Facebook post from the US National Weather Service IMETs (February 4th) sharing a radio interview with NWS Meteorologist Patrick Gilcrest of the NWS Weather Forecast Office in Glasgow MT. The recording is on the long side with the interview starting at about 7 minutes 30 seconds. I enjoyed hearing Patrick talk about how he was deployed to Australia and then talking about his six week service to Australia. I learned a little about some of the differences between weather forecasting in Australia and the United States. One of the  differences being that Australia is on the metric system, but there are difference in terminology that Patrick discusses.

I spent about 48 minutes listening to the interview.



direct link to soundcloud recording

2020 Australian bushfires: more rainfall

When I wrote my February 8th article I knew, thanks to Bill Gabbert's February 7th article that rains had arrived in portions of Australia helping to put out some of the wildfires. Rains have continued over the weekend with the New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Services Facebook page reporting on February 10th that firefighters, assisted by the rain have but out some thirty bushfires since February 7th amounting to over 1.5 million hectares burned (3,760,580 acres). In a February 11th update on their Facebook Page, the NSW Rural Fire Services reported that there are still 26 bushfires burning across NSW with four have yet to be contained. That is great news for the firefighters and all the residents, businesses, animals, etc. affected by the bush fires.

With the arrival of the rains, however long that lasts, comes the concern of flash flooding, possibble land slides, winds, power outages and perhaps other concerns not mentioned here, see this report from 7 News Australia  for more information (video in report may not play in your browser). See also this recent article from The Guardian  and this report about rainfall in Victoria from News 7 Australia  (thanks to Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day e-mail newsletter).

I am not ignoring the rest of Australia, rather because I have been following the NSW Rural Fire Service on Facebook and for simplicity, I have been focusing on that State. I am well aware that bush fires have affected other States in Australia.

2020 Australia Bushfire season: rainfall and scenes of NSW crews

In following New South Wales Rural Fire on Facebook over the last few days I knew that much needed rain arrived over Australia that is helping with the ongoing bushfires that are still burning in New South Wales. (see this February 6th post). With the arrival of this rainfall in Australia comes the flooding, you may read about the New South Wales Rural Fire Service's flood operations here. Finally, Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today wrote an article on February 7th reporting on how the rainfall in Australia has stopped some of the bushfires.

I wanted to offer you a glimpse, however brief, of the efforts of firefighters on the ground and in the air working the bushfires in New South Wales, Australia. The footage that I share below is a peak at the efforts of a small number of Australian firefighters on the ground and in the air as they battle bushfires southwest of Sydney Australia in January 2020.  This video was uploaded to youtube on or about January 20, 2020 by Sydney Emergency.


Direct link to video on Youtube from Sydney Emergency

Short term plans for this blog in light of T-134 crash

Some of you may have figured out that in late December into January I was in the midst of writing reflection pieces on some of the tankers and helicopters that I first wrote about over ten years ago. I had also just began to post about some tankers that I had not devoted a lot of time to in this blog.

Then Coulson tanker 134 crashed in the Snowy Monaro region of New South Wales Australia on January 23rd. 

Out of respect for the loss of Ian, Paul and Rick when T-134 went down and also out of respect for the larger wildland firefighting community, I have suspended writing about tankers and helicopters for the foreseeable future. I am not quite sure when I will resume this series. The first of the remains of the crew were given a hero's farewell at Sydney yesterday prior to being flown back to Houston Texas (see this February 5th article from Reuters). As I write this on February 5th, I will continue to wait a respectable amount of time before resuming this series.

2020 wildfire season: prescribed burning is under way (Feb 3rd)

Prescribed burning season in New Jersey has started. Prescribed burns are necessary to reduce wildfire risk. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service NJFFS) has not yet done a press release announcing that the prescribed burn season is under way. It still may be a little too early for that. I will link to the 2020 press release from the NJFFS when one is released. Prescribed burns are done, weather permitting.

Recent prescribed burns that I know about were scheduled as follows:

JANUARY 29TH

DIVISION B:
BURLINGTON COUNTY:
- Warton State Forest, Tabernacle Township
MONMOUTH COUNTY:
- Wall Township, Allaire State Park
OCEAN COUNTY:
- Little Egg Harbor, East side of township near the bay

JANUARY 30th

DIVISION B
BURLINGTON COUNTY:
- Washington Township, Wharton State Forest
MONMOUTH COUNTY:
- Manalapan Township, Monmouth Battlefield State Park
OCEAN COUNTY:
- Manchester Township, Brendan T. Byrne State Forest

DIVISION C:
CAPE MAY COUNTY:
- Middle Township, Cape May Costal Wetlands Wildlife Management Area


FEBRUARY 1 and 2nd

DIVISION A:
PASSAIC COUNTY:
- West Milford - Ringwood State Park
SOMERSET COUNTY:
- Bernards - Lord Sterling EEC
- Bernardsville - NJ Audubon
SUSSEX COUNTY:
- Andover - Kittatinny Valley State Park
- Vernon - Wawayanda State Park

DIVISION B:
BURLINGTON COUNTY:
- Pemberton - Brendan T Byrne State Forest
- Washington - Wharton State Forest
OCEAN COUNTY:
- Eagleswood - Bass River State Forest
- Manchester - Brendan T. Byrne State Forest
- Jackson - Colliers Mills WMA
MONMOUTH COUNTY:
- Wall - Allaire State Park
- Millstone - Prospertown WMA