2021 NJ wildfire season: Bass River Fire Tower’s role in Little Egg Harbor wildfire

One of the New Jersey Forest Fire Towers whose observer played a crucial role in spotting the Ballanger Fire that burned 617 acres on May 16th and 17th near Little Egg Harbor Township (Burlington and Ocean Counties), NJ was the Bass River Tower located in Bass River State Forest in the New Jersey Pinelands (aka the NJ Pine Barrens). According to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (go here for link to the NJFFS page on fire towers), The Bass River Fire Tower (located in NJFFS Division B) was built in 1937 and is 80 feet tall. Before I get the important role of this fire tower in spotting the Ballanger Fire, a little history is in order.

Up until early 2020, the Bass River Fire Tower was surrounded on three sides by 80 to 100 foot tall White Pines, planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps. In recent years, these trees had grown to a height blocking the views from the cab of the fire tower in three directions (east, north and south). This made spotting some wildfires from this fire tower very difficult. A few years ago, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection -- the New Jersey Forest Fire Service is under the umbrella of the DEP -- started the process to get approvals to clear cut about 16 acres of tree around the fire tower to improve the view from the cab of the fire tower. Objections to clear cutting were raised by citizens, some local government officials, and some environmental organizations (including the Sierra Club) resulting in a delay in getting the necessary approvals. In 2019,  the Pinelands Commission approved the clear cutting plan and clear cutting operations began in January of 2020. You may read more about the clear cut on this January 2020 article in the Atlantic City Press (paywall with a couple of free views).

Once the clear cut was completed, sometime in 2020, there were good views in 360 degrees from the cab of the Bass River Fire Tower. The importance of this controversial clear cut was highlighted by the fact that the observer in the Bass River Fire Tower was able to spot the Ballanger Fire fairly quickly after the fire ignited on May 16th. There is a nice article from the by Douglas D. Melegari of the Pinebarrens Tribune about the role of the Bass River Fire Tower's observers on May 16th. He quotes Trevor Raynor, warden from NJFFS Section B:

In January of last year, the clear-cut finally took place, and the role the Bass River Fire Tower played in detecting the May 16 “Ballanger Fire” that consumed 617 acres of the Bass River State Forest in both Bass River and Little Egg Harbor townships, according to NJFFS Section B Firewarden Trevor Raynor, in response to a question posed by this newspaper during a May 18 NJFFS teleconference with the media, “was super important.”

 

“This fire tower was only a few miles away (from the blaze) and was able to detect this fire quickly and avert disaster, honestly,” Raynor said. “If we used any other system, or relied on 911 for this fire’s detection, by the time that this fire would have been detected and reported (to us) by 911 (dispatch), it would have been at the back of people’s houses, and then it would have been too late, and surely there would have been damage to homes.”