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Monday, June 20, 2022

2022 NJ wildfire season: Mullica River Fire (Burlington County NJ) update

June 20th, 7:30 PM


June 20th, 4:20 PM

The first tweet that I want to share regarding the Mullica River Fire is from the NWS Mount Holly NJ. Most of you may know that the GOES 16 satellite is capable of displaying wildfire signatures (go here for more information on how GOES 16 detects wildfires ). The NWS Mount Holly shared an image from GOES 16 showing the fire signature from the Mullica Hill Fire. I have seen GOES imagery of fire signatures in other parts of the United States, I believe that this is one of the first times I have seen satellite imagery of a wildfire signature from New Jersey. New Jersey Advance Media has some nice photos of the fire, they area also reporting that this could be the largest fire in fifteen years. We will have to wait and see about that until the final numbers are in.

Now for the late afternoon update from the New Jersey Forest Service. The Mullica River Fire has burned 11,000 acres. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service continues to conduct burnout operations. Structure protection of the 18 threatened structures continues with the support of mutual aid from many local fire companies. Campgrounds and boat launches in the vicinity of the fire continue to be closed. No injuries have been reported and roads in the area of the fire (Routes 206 and 52 continue to be closed.

New Jersey Advance Media has some nice photos of the fire, they are also reporting that this could be the largest fire in fifteen years. At this point, I will wait until the fire is controlled with final total acreage burned to see if this fire is the largest in fifteen years. The Warren Grove fire (May 2007) burned approximately 17,000 acres (for more information see my May 16, 2022 and my April 5, 2019 articles.

June 20th, 11:23 AM

I posted earlier this morning (see this post for some links). According to the morning update from the NJ Forest Fire Service, tweet embedded below, the Mullica River Fire has burned 7,200 acres in Wharton State Forest in Burlington County, NJ. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service continues backfiring operations. Eighteen structures are threatened, structure protection aided by mutual aid from local fire departments is in place. No injuries have been reported. As I get new information from the NJ Forest Fire Service and/or other news reports about the fire I will update this thread. Stay tuned.


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