2023 Wildfire Season: Nova Scotia Wildfires (May 31st)

Direct link to video from Global News on YouTube

On Saturday night, May 27th, I heard from a friend who lives somewhere in the vicinity of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He told me about a wildfire that had started that same day. He saw flames and smoke from the wildfire as he was riding to work on Saturday night. He went on to tell me that the fire was threatening residential areas. On Sunday, I went and checked the Nova Scotia Division of Natural Resources and Renewables Twitter account but did not find reports of the size of the fire my friend told me about until May 29th, more on that later. 

Unless otherwise noted, I accessed all of the embedded tweets from the Nova Scotia Division of Natural Resources and Renewables Twitter account.

I want to start by acknowledging that according to a news release from the Nova Scotia Government there are at least three wildfires in Nova Scotia, including one that has burned 19,000 hectares (about 46,500 acres).

Barrington Lake, Shelburne County, wildfire update:
The fire is out of control, covering 19,000 hectares. 50 DNRR firefighters, 40 volunteer firefighters and four helicopters are one scene. pic.twitter.com/H9UOi4dRDT

— Nova Scotia Gov. (@nsgov) May 30, 2023

I believe that wildfire that my friend was telling me about is the wildfire that is burning in the Tantallon-Westwood Hills area of Nova Scotia. According to a May 30th update from the Nova Scotia Government this fire had burned 788 hectares (about 1,947 acres). Mandatory evacuations orders are in place.

Westwood Hills, Tantallon, wildfire update:
the wildfire, estimated at 788 hectares, remains out of control. Fire fighters are responding to increased fire activity in the Taylor Lake and Sandy Lake West area. pic.twitter.com/Eu0xne7Rh1

— Nova Scotia Gov. (@nsgov) May 30, 2023

For a sense of geography, I saw these maps in another Tweet by the  Nova Scotia Division of Natural Resources and Renewables of the 19,000 hectare wildfire in the Barrington area and the 788 acre fire in the Tantallon area.

Here is the latest map (accurate at 10:20 a.m. on May 31) of the wildfire in the Tantallon-Westwood Hills area. The active fire area is shaded in pink, and the evacuation perimeter is the dotted red line. pic.twitter.com/Hl5MvHOnPo

— Natural Resources and Renewables (@NS_DNRR) May 31, 2023

I did some more searching because I wanted to find a map that showed where the wildfires were on a map of the Province of Nova Scotia. Thanks again to CBC who reported on the locations of the wildfires with maps.

Finally, here is a May 31st report on the Tantallon-Westwood Hills wildfire from CBC News Nova Scotia

2023 New Jersey Wildfire Season: Box Turtle Fire (Gloucester County) Contained

Better late than never. I got involved in other things yesterday and neglected to check out my usual online sources for wildfire activity in New Jersey. Thanks to New Jersey Advance Media, this morning I learned about a 158 acre fire in the White Oaks Management Area in Gloucester County in southern New Jersey, this article is behind a paywall so you probably won't be able to see the full article. But as a subscriber to on of the New Jersey Media publications I do want to give a shout out to them for their reporting on this fire. I did find a May 30th article about this fire on 6 Action News in Philadelphia that is freely available as I write this as well as a video on YouTube.

Direct link to video from 6ABC Philadelphia

The fire was first reported on Monday night, May 29th and was declared 100 percent contained by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service the afternoon of May 30th. I then went to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service's Facebook page and found the following update with photos. 

Memorial Day: Remember and Honor Those Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice

 

Friday Fun: A Look Back at Airtankers in 1987

 I wanted to dig into my saved bookmarks of video footage of historic airtankers to share with you for today's Friday Fun. If you are traveling this holiday weekend, I wish you safe travels and an enjoyable weekend.

This footage is courtesy of Brian Lockett of Air-and-Space.com. According to his family, see their Facebook on his Facebook page, he passed away on June 2, 2021 (you may need to be logged on to Facebook). His family is maintaining his website which showcases his photographs and where you can find information about his books.

Allow just under 15 minutes to watch this video shot in October, 1987 at Santa Barbara Airport. According to the description of this video, you will see the following airtankers: Douglas C-54 Skymaster, Lockheed P2V Neptune, Consolidated P4Y-2 and Fairchild C-123 Provider.

Direct link to video by Brian Lockett on YouTube

US National Weather Service Incident Meteorologists: below normal wildfire activity and early season activities (May 24th)

It is late May and according to the US National Weather Service Incident Meteorologist (IMETs) Office (see their Facebook post that I have embedded below), "we are running below the 10-year average for both wildfires and acres burned so far this year (2023)". Now it is still early in the wildfire season in much of the western United States and many areas saw winter rainfall much above normal. While the rain was welcome leading to growth of vegetation, I am concerned that if the weather pattern changes to a stretch of dry weather that conditions will be ripe for increased fire danger. Of course, I am neither a Meteorologist nor am a wildland firefighter, but am someone who is concerned. 

Before I get to the IMETs, I checked out the latest National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued on May 1st by Predictive Services at the National Interagency Fire Center, they say in part:

Significant fire activity continued to increase across the Southern, Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Eastern Areas in April, but a portion of the Southern Area observed a decrease in significant fire activity at the end of the month due to green-up. Significant fire activity remained minimal elsewhere across the West and Alaska. Green-up is well underway across much of the West, but fuel moistures are decreasing across the lower elevations of the Southwest and portions of southern California. Year-to-date acres burned for the US is 55% of the 10-year average, with a below average number of fires, nearly 83% of average.

Precipitation decreased significantly across much of the southwestern US in April, with below normal precipitation extending through the Mid-Mississippi Valley into the Mid-Atlantic. Above normal precipitation was confined to the Northwest, portions of the Texas coast, and Great Lakes. Below normal temperatures were widespread across the West, and despite the below average precipitation, little snowmelt occurred, with record or near record snow water equivalent (SWE) values remaining in the Sierra, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Temperatures were above normal in Florida and the Northeast. Drought continued to improve across most of the West, but drought emerged or worsened in Florida and the Mid-Atlantic into southern New England, while severe and extreme drought continued on portions of the southern and central Plains. (accessed on May 24, 2023 from National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued on May 1st issued by Predictive Services of the National Interagency Fire Center).

The main page of Predictive Services at the National Interagency Fire Center may be found here where you can access weekly, monthly and seasonal fire weather outlooks; fuels and fire danger; weather products; and intelligence.

While it is not yet a busy wildfire season for the IMETs, they have been involved in a few missions, at least one was to help out with at least one prescribed burn in Colorado. In addition to deployments to North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. See their Facebook below for more details. I know that the IMETs are a national resource and are available for deployment anywhere in the U.S. and have helped out over seas in years past (e.g. in Australia in December 2019 and again on January 13th 2020 and at least once more during Australias's 2019-20 wildfire season on  January 29th 2020. IMETs save lives! Thanks to all IMETs for your current and upcoming service to help wildland firefighters stay safe, deployments may last as long as two weeks and sometimes more than one IMET is deployed to a wildfire.

2022 Wildfire Season: Entiat Hotshots 2022 Fire Season

Enjoy this video summarizing the 2022 fire season of the Entiat Hotshots, out of central Washington. According to the Facebook Page of the Entiat Hotshots some of the fires they worked in 2022 were the Calf Canyon and Hermit Peaks Fires in New Mexico, working assorted wildfires in Alaska, working various wildfires in Montana, and the Cedar Creek Fire in Oregon. Nice job Entiat Hotshots, stay safe during 2023. 

I hope you enjoy this short video, under five minutes, summarizing the Entiat Hotshots 2022 fire season. I always like meeting the crew at the end of the video. 

Direct link to video by Entiat IHC Crew Media on YouTube

2023 New Jersey Wildfire Season: Thundergut Pond Wildlife Management Area, Salem County

Knowing that there was extreme wildfire danger in New Jersey on May 17th, I checked the NJ Forest Fire Service's Facebook page at least once a day. Unfortunately, I missed their notification about what started out as a ten acre wildfire in the Thundergut Pond Wildlife Mangement Area in Salem County that grew to 65 acres before being contained late at night on May 18th. Apparently 15 structures were threatened earlier on May 18th. Thanks to my friends at the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 who posted a short video about this fire, embedded below, in their May 19th daily videos on their home page.

Direct link to video report from CBS Philadelphia (late in the evening of May 18th) on YouTube

2023 New Jersey Wildfire Season: Fire Weather Forecast (May 17th)

On May 15th, I wrote about the danger of conditions that are ripe for extreme fire danger this week. The expected fire weather danger turned into real fire weather danger yesterday, March 16th, with Red Flag Warnings in southern New Jersey and an elevated risk of fire danger for the rest of the state. These same fire weather conditions continue today, March 17th with Red Flag Warnings continuing for much of southern New Jersey and an elevated risk of fire danger in the rest of New Jersey (covered by a Special Weather Statement issued bo the National Weather Service). 

Obtained on May 17, 2023 at 11:30 AM from https://www.weather.gov/phi/

000

WWUS81 KPHI 171335

RFWPHI

URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Mount Holly NJ

935 AM EDT Wed May 17 2023

NJZ017>020-022-027-180000-

/O.CON.KPHI.FW.W.0005.000000T0000Z-230518T0000Z/

Gloucester-Camden-Northwestern Burlington-Ocean-Atlantic-

Southeastern Burlington-

935 AM EDT Wed May 17 2023

...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING

FOR GUSTY WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY FOR PARTS OF SOUTHERN 

NEW JERSEY...

* AFFECTED AREA...Gloucester, Camden, Burlington, Ocean and

  Atlantic counties, especially the Pine Barrens.

* TIMING...Through early this evening, with the driest conditions

  occurring this afternoon.

* WINDS...North 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph.

* RELATIVE HUMIDITY...As low as 20 percent.

* TEMPERATURES...In the mid to upper 60s.

* IMPACTS...The combination of dry conditions, low relative 

  humidity and gusty winds will result in favorable conditions 

  for the rapid spread of wildfires today.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions

are expected due to a combination of strong winds, low relative

humidity and dry fuels. Any fires that develop may quickly get

out of control and become difficult to contain.

For more information about wildfire danger, burn restrictions,

and wildfire prevention and education, please visit your state

forestry or environmental protection website.

&&

$$

Iovino/Gorse

2023 New Jersey Wildfire Season: Fire Weather Forecast (May 15th)

The recent Cannonball2 Wildfire that burned 107 acres in Pompton Lakes (Bergen County) NJ this past weekend coupled with recent dry weather served to remind me that wildfires of any size, including larger wildfires, can happen at any time of year. Yes, for regular readers of this blog this is obvious. I admit that I do not check the fire weather planning forecast from my local weather service -- NWS Philadelphia/Mt. Holly -- on a daily basis, I do try to monitor my local fire weather forecast during dry spells but admit that I am sometimes prompted to do so by my friends from the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 and others from New Jersey on social media. For those of you who live in the region covered by the NWS Philadelphia/Mt. Holly, their fire weather forecast is updated twice a day and may be found here. Those of you who live elsewhere in the United States may find your local NWS Weather Forecast Office by going to the NWS Weather Forecast Offices (link current as of May 15, 2023).

My concern for this week is that there may be fire danger in New Jersey and adjoining areas later this week. So, I will be paying attention to the fire weather forecasts issued by the NWS Philadelphia/Mt. Holly and will follow-up as warranted. Please be safe and fire aware, the Smokey the Bear and Firewise webpages have tips on how you can prevent wildfires at your home. Check your local Forest Fire Service as well as your town and/or county for local regulations. For those of you in New Jersey, the NJ Forest Fire Service has a fire danger dashboard.

FNUS51 KPHI 151406
FWFPHI

Fire Weather Planning Forecast
National Weather Service Mount Holly NJ
1005 AM EDT Mon May 15 2023

.DISCUSSION...

Relative humidity values are forecast to drop into the 25 to 30 percent range on Tuesday afternoon across the Poconos and far  northern New Jersey. A southwest to west wind 10 to 15 MPH with gusts around 20 MPH may result in a heightened fire weather concern at that time.

Wednesday appears to be our driest and breeziest day of the week. Minimum relative humidity values in the 20 to 30 percent range are expected for much of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and northern Delaware. A northwest wind 10 to 20 MPH with gusts of 25 to 30 MPH is anticipated.

Thursday is again forecast to bring dry condition in the afternoon. However, wind speeds should be only in the 5 to 10 MPH range from the northeast, becoming southeast to south.

Due to the expected conditions, we are planning to coordinate with our state fire weather partners this morning to check on fuel moisture levels and the potential need for any special fire weather products this week.

2023 New Jersey Wildfire Season: Cannonball 2 Wildfire in Bergen County Contained

May 14, 6:29 PM

I am happy to report that the Cannonball 2 wildfire that burned 107 acres in Pompton Lakes (Bergen County NJ) is 100 percent contained, as reported by the NJ Forest Fire Service at 10 AM. Nice job everyone! New Jersey Advance Media reported on the containment of the Cannonball 2 Wildfire in an article at noon today. Five abandoned industrial structures were threatened and structure protect was successful, no residences were threatened.

May 13, 7:15 PM

The NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 has a note on their main webpage about the Cannonball 2 wildfire in the Pompton Lakes area of Bergen County that has burned approximately 100 acres, some structure protection is in place. I will update this page as I get more information. I found some media coverage on this fire in a May 13th article on North Jersey dot com, there may be a paywall. 

Friday Fun: Air Tanker History (1970s)

 It is Friday and I thought it would be fun to share a video of some now historic air tankers. So I went and looked in my collection of saved videos and found this nice video that airailimages edited from a video/dvd book Fire Bombers in Action by frederick A. Johnsen (copyright 2010) showcasing some airtankers from the 1970s. I do have the book/dvd although at the moment I don't have a DVD player, I recommend it. Among the air tankers you will see are a B-17F, Consolidated PBY-6A, B-17G, PB4Y-2. Enjoy.

Direct link to video uploaded by airailimages on YouTube

2023 Wildfire Season: Alberta Wildfires (May 10th)

 I knew over the weekend that there were wildfires burning in Alberta and one way I know that wildfires are having a major impact, both in size and on residential and business properties is when the news of these wildfires show up in my newsfeed. See for example this May 10th CNN report. However, I did not have to go my newsfeed to learn about these wildfires because I follow Wildfire Today where Kelly Anderson covered these fires on May 5th and May 9th.  In addition, you may want to read this May 9th article from Grist and a May 8th article from the New York Times (I subscribe to the NY Times and I hope that have successfully used one of my "gifts" to give you free access to this article through May 20th). The New York Times reports that "around 964,000 acres have burned since wildfires started more than a week ago, destroying dozens of structures and forcing nearly 30,000 residents of Alberta to evacuate. ... Alberta declared a state of emergency on Saturday as more than 110 wildfires burned across the province."

I thought that you might enjoy this May 9th report on these Alberta Wildfires from CBC.

Direct link to video from CBC News on YouTube

Environmental Concerns Over the use of Fire Retardant and a Lawsuit

A federal lawsuit filed over the use of fire retardant dropped by aircraft was filed in Montana in October of 2022. I am sure that this is old news for many of you as it has been covered in social media and other media sources, see for example Bill Gabbert's October 12, 2022 article in Wildfire Today Bill said in part:

An environmental group filed a lawsuit in a Montana federal court Tuesday alleging that the US Forest Service has polluted waterways by inadvertently dropping fire retardant in or near waterways.  The retardant was dropped by aircraft under contract with the Forest Service while assisting wildland firefighters on the ground.

The suit says government data released earlier this year showed more than 760,000 gallons of fire retardant was dropped into waterways between 2012 and 2019. The lawsuit alleges the continued use of retardant from aircraft violates the Clean Water Act and requests a judge to declare the pollution illegal.

I was reminded of this lawsuit recently when I came across a video thanks to my friends at the New Jersey Forest Fire Service Section B10 who shared this video last week in their daily videos on their home page. This short video from ABC 10 in Northern California mentions the lawsuit, the environmental concerns posed by fire retardant and how fire retardant helps fire fighters on the ground. For some context, I know that fire retardant is widely used  in the western United States when aerial resources are deployed to help fight wildfires. I am less certain how fire retardant is use in the eastern portions of the United States, I believe that most of the aerial resources deployed to wildfires in New Jersey do not use fire retardant. To the best of my understanding, most helicopters with buckets do not use fire retardant. I am less certain I found the video educational and enlightening and thought that some of you might enjoy this video.

Direct link to video from ABC10 on YouTube

2023 New Jersey Wildfire Season: Summary of Major Wildfires in April

 I have been reflecting on the busy spring wildfire season in New Jersey in the middle of April. It was already an earlier and busier wildfire season in New Jersey, see this April 3 news release from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection for more details. The news release discussed the wildfire season in New Jersey on April 3, a relevant excerpt is quoted below:

New Jersey has had an early start to wildfire season this year. Since imageJanuary 1, 2023, the Forest Fire Service has responded to 315 wildfires which have burned 919.75 acres. The largest of these fires was the Governors Branch Wildfire which sparked on March 7 in the Stafford Forge Wildlife Management Area in Little Egg Harbor, Ocean County. Smoke from the fire was spotted at 11:45 a.m. by the nearby Cedar Bridge Fire Tower and reached 100% containment that evening after burning 418 acres of forest. The area where the fire burned had previously been treated with prescribed fire in 2018 and, therefore, did not burn as intensely as it could have. The cause of the Governors Branch fire remains under investigation (NJ Department of Environmental Protection News Release, April 3, 2023, Forest Fire Service reminds residents to be careful with fire as New Jersey enters peak wildfire season).

Knowing the wildfire numbers in New Jersey on April 3rd, I went into my blog and pulled out summary information of four major wildfires in New Jersey that I knew about. I knew of a couple of much smaller wildfires that burned in April and I am certain that there are other smaller wildfires that I do not know bout. Here is the summary of these four major wildfires. These four fires burned a combined 6,695 acres.  

• Jimmy’s Waterhole Fire, Manchester Township, Ocean County NJ, reported on April 11, 2023. Burned 3,859 acres. Contained on April 13, 2023.
• Kanouse Fire, Milford Township, Passaic County NJ, reported on April 12, 2023. Burned 972 acres. Contained on April 15, 2023.
• Log Swamp Fire, Little Egg Harbor Township, Ocean County NJ, reported on April 15, 2023. Burned 1,607 acre. Contained on April 15, 2023.
• River Road Fire, Washington Township, Burlington County NJ, reported on April 18, 2023. Burned 257 acres. Contained on April 19, 2023.

Simple arithmetic reveals that starting with the 919.75 acreage burned as of April 3rd that had burned in New Jersey and adding the 6,695 ares burned in the four major wildfires that I mentioned earlier and we arrive at 7,614.75 acres burned. But I know that is not all the acreage burned because that figure does not include the many smaller wildfires that burned during this period. 

Fortunately a May 2 CBS Philadelphia news report on the Jimmy's Waterhole Fire that reviews the fire, discusses the aftermath of this fire with an official from the NJ Forest Fire Service and most important for my purpose is that CBS Philadelphia got acreage burned through May 1, 2023 from the NJ Forest Fire Service. I have got a screen shot of acreage burned to date compared with numbers a year ago from the video. You will see that as of May 1st, 579 wildfires have burned 7,914 acres. This leaves us with 264 wildfires (579 - 418) just under 300 acres burned from April 4th through May 1st in New Jersey, accounting for smaller wildfires. I must acknowledge that my calculations may not be an accurate accounting of wildfire activity in New Jersey from April 4th through May 1st and any errors in my calculations are mine alone and may not reflect official accounting of wildfire activity through May 1st from  the NJ Forest Fire Service.  However, it is my intention to pro rough idea of a busy spring wildfire season in NJ during much of April. Fortunately it rained later in April, providing relief for wildland firefighters and helping stave off a drought.

Screenshot from May  2, 2023 CBS Philadelphia news report on Youtube on the "aftermath of Ocean County's wildfire that burned nearly 4,000 acres"

I am embedding the May 2 video report from CBS Philadelphia below. It is a nice video, under three minutes and I hope you take the time to watch the video. Thanks again to all wildland firefighters from the NJ Forest Fire Service on the ground and in the air along with the all important support from local firefighters, EMS, volunteers bringing food, etc.

Inside a Heavy Lift Marine Corp Helicopter Deploying a Bucket

I had something else in mind for today's blog post, but that will have to wait for another day. I was perusing the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 website this morning, something I do on an almost daily basis because they post videos a few videos about wildland and structure firefighting on a daily basis. I found a very nice video featuring Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 466, Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW), along with other units from 3rd MAW, I Marine Expeditionary Force in a wildland fire training exercise with local firefighters at Camp Pendleton. The focus of the video is on installing and then deploying a bucket on one of their heavy lift helicopters. I am intrigued by this video because I saw the Marines working with the bucket from inside the helicopter. I thought that some of you might be interested in this video. I know that military aviation resources are often called upon to assist wildland firefighters when necessary. When this Marine Aircraft Wing, which is based in San Diego County, CA gets the call to send their heavy helicopters to assist wildland firefighters do they only fly fires in California?

Enjoy the video.

Direct link to video from Defense Now on YouTube

2023 New Jersey Wildfire Season: Longer video of Jimmy's Waterhole Fire Manchester Twshp (Ocean County) with helicopter footage

We had a much welcomed rainy weekend here in New Jersey and environs which I hope addressed concerns over a drier than normal winter and spring. There was some flooding and I hope that things are drying out. It is getting to the end of the spring wildfire season here in New Jersey, although  I must caution that a wildfire can happen anytime of year and the New Jersey Forest Fire Service will always be ready to fight a wildfire along with the help of mutual aid. 

On a day when we are drying out and hopefully any wildfires (famous last words) in New Jersey and environs are smaller and easily contained, I was wondering what to write about today. Thanks to my friends from the NJFFS Section B10 website, I find a nice but somewhat long video (under 24 minutes) of footage from the Jimmy's Waterhole Fire that recently burned 3,859 acres in Manchester Township (Ocean County, NJ) where 170 structures were threatened with 70 residences under mandatory evacuation orders for a time. No structures were damaged and there were no injuries. 

I enjoyed watching this video, in the first half of the video you will here and see firefighters from local municipalities responding to the need for structure protection. There is some nice wildfire footage and photographs. Starting at about time mark 12:55 there is about 10 minutes of footage and some still photographs of a NJ Forest Fire Service helicopters flying and dipping. Thanks to all who responded to put this wildfire out and those who supported the efforts of the firefighters. Nice job everyone.

Direct link to video from NJ Paparizzi on YouTube