Monday, November 25, 2024

Reflections on 2024 NJ Fall Wildfire Season

As I write this, it is four days past the rain event in New Jersey and environs that resulted in the New Jersey Forest Fire Service lowering the fire danger and lifting restrictions. However, I am going to remain alert and be aware that as it has been dry of late, that the fire danger may tick up again. 


In reporting on the major wildfires in New Jersey during this fall wildfire season, be assured that I am aware of the hundreds of smaller wildfires that I do not know about. Between the major wildfires that I wrote about and these smaller wildfires in New Jersey, I know that the crews of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service worked hard. Kudos to all the crews of the NJFFS and structure firefighters for your hard work in keeping us safe. At the suggestion of a couple of friends of mine, I have a post summarizing the 2024 New Jersey fall wildfire season, I will edit and revise as appropriate and there is a link to that post on the upper right side of the main page on the "web version" of my blog.

In doing my best to report on what I knew about this unprecedented fall wildfire season in New Jersey and environs, I admit that I did not give equal time to wildfires in adjoining and near by states. I did live in Manhattan over 45 years ago, and while I was not aware of brush fires in New York City at that time, I am aware of the large number of brush fires in New York City this fall. In the time that I have been writing this blog I don't recall seeing such a large number of brush fires in New York City. I applaud the NYC firefighters for working and containing these fires and as far as I know no houses were impacted by these brush fires. I am also aware of the wildfires that  broke out in New England, Long Island New York, and Pennsylvania. I know that there are States that I am not listing here.

I was touched by the severity of this fall wildfire season in New Jersey and elsewhere in the northeastern United States in ways that are hard to explain in words. Trust me on this. 

As regular readers know, during the recent weeks of this fall wildfire season in New Jersey, I was sometimes posting two or three times a day. While under normal circumstances I won't be posting with that frequency, I will do my best to stay aware of major wildfires burning in New Jersey and adjoining regions and will increase my posting as appropriate. 



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