A brief very brief overview of Pennsylvania's state wildfire agency and their 2021 wildfire season

Pennsylvania is a large state, but New Jersey does share a border with Pennsylvania and I do find myself thinking about wildfires in Pennsylvania, especially during the spring and fall wildfire seasons. I believe that the spring fire season in Pennsylvania is the same as here in New Jersey, March through May and again in the fall. I am not always tied into wildfire news in Pennsylvania, so I want to thank Mike Archer of Wildfire News of the Day, whose April 12th newsletter included a couple of articles about wildfires that burned in Pennsylvania the end of last week. 

• Two wildfires, fueled by strong winds, in Ohiopyle State Park in western Pennsylvania burned about 450 acres were contained on Friday, April 9th, see this article by CBS in Pittsburgh. 
• On or about Wednesday, April 7th, according to this report from YourErie two wildfires were reported in the Allegany National Forest in Pennsylvania. One burned about 261 and was estimated to be at 90 percent containment on April 12th, the second burned about 227 acres and was at 90 percent containment.

Reading about these two wildfires in western Pennsylvania got me interested in checking out the Pennsylvania state agency responsible for wildfires. The agency responsible for wildfires in Pennsylvania is the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) . I knew from poking around that there are 20 State Forest Districts in Pennsylvania, I believe each district is responsible for wildfires in their district. The DCNR has a page for wildfires that may be found here, with links for wildfire danger, historical statistics (some are by district), burn bans,  a nice fire tower story map, etc.. As I write this there is a summary report for 2020 wildfire season in PA that is available, it can be found here, but be advised that if you are arriving here in future years that the link may no longer be valid. I was interested in the following statistics from the 2020 summary report:

• 1.508 wildfires burned 3,021 acres with 17 structures destroyed, 2 fatalities and 12 injuries;
• 99.5 percent of these wildfires were caused by humans;
• the 10 year average is 750 wildfires and 3,500 acres burned;
• the largest wildfire burned 812 acres in early November in Monroe County, PA in northeastern PA.
• Pennsylvania DCNR air operations worked seven wildfires dropping 8,200 gallons.