I have blogged about aerial wildland firefighting since 2009. I am not a firefighter and am not a pilot, just an interested bystander who wants to learn more and share what I learn here. Join me here as I blog on the aircraft and the pilots who fight wildland fires from the air in support of crews on the ground. I also blog on concerns affecting fire crews on the ground as well as other aviation and meteorology issues. Learn what it takes to do jobs that are staffed by the best of the best.
CAL FIRE (CDF) S2T Tanker 71 working Sawtooth Complex Fire (2006)
Sawtooth Complex Fire (Sept. 2006), San Bernardino County CA. Photo Credit: U.S. Forest Service
Showing posts with label New Jersey - general. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Jersey - general. Show all posts
A NJ State Police Helicopter rescued two firefighters in the Passaic River, near a dam on the river on the edge of the Passaic Falls. The firefighters were in their boat trying to rescue three contractors working on trees near the river, the contractors got out but the firefighter's boat became stranded. There was a little drama, someone was lowered from the helicopter and brought up one firefighter. But rescuing the second firefighter was a little more difficult requiring the helicopter to make two more passes before the second firefighter was rescued. For those who are so inclined, CBS New York posted a 20 minute video showing the rescue as it happened. I am sharing a two minute report about the rescue also from CBS New York. I learned of this dramatic rescue from friends with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service Section B10 who shared the longer video the other day. North Jersey dot com has a June 29th article (with videos and pictures) about this rescue that may be found here.
For many this is a holiday weekend coming up with both Easter and Passover coinciding. I want to wish all who are traveling this weekend safe travels. And for those who celebrate either Easter or Passover, I wish a happy holiday. I am also rethinking what I call Friday Fun. With this being mid-April with spring in its many personalities here, I wanted to share some of the beauty of New Jersey. With this in mind I am sharing two videos showing the beauty of a couple of favorite places of mine. The first is a flight in a Cessna 182 over the Delaware Water Gap and the second is of Island Beach State Park.
When I posted on September 1 about the deployment of NJ Task Force 1 to the gulf coast region, I did not know that the NJ-TF1was demobilized on August 31st to return to NJ to help with the remnants of Ida. I had read in a couple of news articles online that the NJ-TF1 was back in NJ helping with search and rescue and other storm recovery. I finally checked out the NJ Office of Emergency Management Facebook page and found the post about their demobilization.
To the women and men of the NJ-TF1, I am honored by your national service in time of need. As a New Jersey resident, I am very grateful that you are here in New Jersey helping with search and rescue and other storm response after the devastation caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida on September 1st leaving many areas in central New Jersey with catastrophic flooding. I thank-you for your service as we in New Jersey are working to clean-up and recover from Ida.
The video that I have embedded below is from NJ Advance Media showing flooding in one town, Somerville and Raritan New Jersey. Scenes like this were all to common last week.
FEMA has 28 federal urban search and rescue teams, one of these is New Jersey Task Force 1 In addition to being a federal team they are a State of New Jersey Team operating under the New Jersey State Police. Like many of you, my heart and prayers go out to all on the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Ida which has decimated Louisiana and environs. I wanted to find a way to offer my heartfelt prayers, as inadequate as this might be, to all affected by Hurricane Ida.
I think that the best way to express my prayers is to share that the New Jersey Task Force 1 was deployed to the Gulf Coast Region to provide support for ongoing search and rescue efforts on the Gulf Coast. I am honored by your service. You represent New Jersey well, and perhaps you can be an extension of my thoughts and prayers for all affected by Hurricane Ida. From the New Jersey Office of Emergency Facebook post on the deployment of NJTF1 that I share below:
New Jersey Task Force 1 (NJ-TF1) has been activated as part of the National Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response System to deploy to assist with the rescue and recovery efforts resulting from soon-to-be Hurricane Ida.
NJ-TF1 is deploying as a Type 3 US&R Team consisting of 45 team members, in 35 technically skilled positions, and 10 ground support personnel. The team will have a full cache of equipment allowing them to be prepared for every type of situation.
NJ-TF1 is deploying to a staging area in the Gulf Coast Region. This will be the team’s ninth deployment as a FEMA US&R Team since 2016. The team has past experience in working in all types of situations, including structural collapse from 9/11, Tropicana Hotel Parking Garage Collapse, multiple hurricanes, Hackensack Parking Garage Collapse and Champlain Towers Collapse.
I usually do not write about structure fires, but due to the wind driven nature of the fire, I am making an exception in writing about the loss of the iconic Marcal Paper Plant in Elmwood Park (Bergen County), New Jersey. If any of you have ever driven on Interstate 80 in New Jersey, you may have passed the Marcal plant with it's cool red lighted sign.
Image from Google Earth Pro, street view (August 2018)
I believe that the fire started sometime on January 29th. Because fires were somewhat common at Marcal because of the highly combustable paper, Marcal had an in-house group of firefighters. At some point they called for mutual aid from the nearby towns. The fire continued into January 30th. Then everything changed when a wind driven snow squall hit sometime between 3:25 PM and 3:50 PM.
I am familiar with the snow squall as it hit my town about an hour before, the winds kicked up with white out conditions. The snow squall only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes but it ushered in an arctic cold front with sustained winds of 20 to 25 mph and gusts up to 50 mph. I wanted to give you an idea of the winds that afternoon, so I called up the National Weather Service at Upton NY whose forecast area includes Bergen County. One of their Meteorologists gave me wind data for Teterboro Airport (KTEB) which is located about 5 miles southeast of the Marcal Plant. While not wind data for Elmwood Park, this wind data will give you an idea of the type of winds the firefighters were dealing with. Any errors in the data are mine.
Note the uptick in the winds at 3:51 PM, shortly after the snow squall passed through. For more information about the conditions the firefighters were facing, by this time it was a 10-alarm fire, read this NJ dot com article (with photos). Elmwood Park Fire Chief, Michael Sulick told NJ Advance Media (for NJ dot come) what happened when the squall hit:
Firefighters in Elmwood Park felt they were making progress against the fire in “Building 41” of the sprawling Marcal Paper campus, pushing back the flames with four lines, like they had done so many times over the decades.
Then, from the west, the squall hit, unleashing fierce winds that pushed the fire towards the sky. Within minutes, the 86-year-old plant, packed with combustibles, erupted into a raging inferno that continued to burn nearly a day later.
“The roof caught fire, we heard cracking, we automatically pulled everyone out at that point,” Elmwood Park Fire Chief Michael Sulick said. “It just went downhill from that point on.”
The plant was burned to the ground. No firefighters were injured, and nearby residents were evacuated. I am not sure about damage to nearby residences.
When I lived in northeastern New Jersey almost 20 years ago, I frequently drove on that section of Route 80. The Marcal paper plant was an old friend, and I remembered their paper products. Five hundred people employed at Marcal are without jobs, Elmwood Park is grieving the loss of Marcal. I am saddened by the loss of the Marcal Plant, but I am very glad that no lives were lost and that most of the destruction appears to have been contained to the Marcal Plant complex.
Kudos to all the fire companies that responded, some of whom may have been volunteers.
I would be remiss to leave out Massachusetts. The nor'easter has hung around Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island since late Saturday night. Some areas have eight inches of rain. Those of you interested in some media coverage, may want to go here or here.
See this public information statement from the Boston MA office of the National Weather Service:
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
SPOTTER REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
656 PM EDT MON MAR 15 2010
THE FOLLOWING ARE UNOFFICIAL OBSERVATIONS TAKEN FOR THE STORM THAT
HAS BEEN AFFECTING OUR REGION. THESE ARE THE MOST RECENT STORM
TOTAL REPORTS THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED. APPRECIATION IS EXTENDED TO
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTS...COOPERATIVE OBSERVERS...SKYWARN SPOTTERS AND
MEDIA FOR THESE REPORTS. THIS SUMMARY IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON OUR HOME
PAGE AT WEATHER.GOV/BOSTON
********************STORM TOTAL RAINFALL********************
LOCATION STORM TOTAL TIME/DATE COMMENTS
RAINFALL OF
(INCHES) MEASUREMENT
...WINDHAM COUNTY...
WILLIMANTIC 2.61 552 PM 3/15 ASOS
MASSACHUSETTS
...BARNSTABLE COUNTY...
HYANNIS 2.70 551 PM 3/15 ASOS
...BRISTOL COUNTY...
TAUNTON 5.84 554 PM 3/15 NWS OFFICE
RAYNHAM 5.10 911 AM 3/15 AMATEUR RADIO EAST RAY
ACUSHNET 5.08 1016 AM 3/15
NEW BEDFORD 4.56 549 PM 3/15 ASOS
Another town that often gets hit hard with floods is Bound Brook, NJ. The Raritan River passes through town as does two of its tributaries, the Middle Brook and Green Brook.
I am sure that most of you have heard about the Nor'easter that hit NJ, NY, and CT this past Saturday before working its way up to New England. As a resident of NJ, I offer you these videos. The one above is talking about flooding in Wayne, NJ. Wayne is an area that is often hard hit by floods.
In my wonderings recently on the NJ Pinelands Commission website, I found this draft version, Fire Safety Initiative: Stafford and Barnagat Townships (NJ). I skimmed it several days and was especially interested in plans to build fire breaks along residential areas in the two townships that are especially vulnerable to wildfires. I made a mental note to add spending some quality time with this plan to read up on what they are planning to do.
Just this morning, I was reading the posts in the general discussion forum on wildland fire when I came across a post in a thread on news from the NJ forest fire service community with a link to this Nov. 8th article from the Asbury Park Press reporting that Stafford and Barnagat Townships have officially adopted this plan.
One of the policy issues relating to wildfires that I am interested in relate to issues facing communities such as Stafford and Barnagat Townships in NJ who are on the wildland/urban interface. These two communities are in the NJ Pine Barrens near the Warren Grove military base. In May 2007, a fire, known as the Warren Grove fire, burned 10,000+ acres including portions of both townships. If I am not mistaken, the Warren Grove fire was started by a flare dropped from a military plan from Warren Grove on a training run. I believe that this fire safety plan was adopted, in part, in response to this fire.
I took a drive down to check out a section of the Delaware and Raritan Canal about two miles south of Lambertville, NJ yesterday afternoon. I wanted to check out some markers that I first saw when I went to that section of the canal last March. The markers, near a culvert, turned out to be uninteresting.
But I was interested in the culvert, so I am attaching two photos of the culvert, one from each side of the culvert. When I went back yesterday, I was struck by the much lower level of the Delaware River as compared with March 6, 2008 (bankfull). I am including two pictures looking from the towpath along the canal at the culvert looking towards the Delaware River. One, taken in March, shows the River at bankfull. The other, taken yesterday from about the same spot, shows the River at a significantly lower level, probably more along the lines of a "normal" level if not a tad on the low side.
Both pictures were taken in Lambertville. One was taken on March 6, 2008 when the Delaware was at bankfull and the second was taken nine days later on March 15. I tried to go to the same spot on March 15 from which I had taken the earlier photo, but you can see that I was off a little. Nevertheless, I think you get the idea.
Last March (March 6) I was out for a walk along the Delaware River when the River was at what is known as bankfull. We had just had a significant amount of rain and there was the possibility of even more rain a couple of days later. Bankfull is as what you think. This is when a river or stream is near the top of its bank, just shy of flood stage. Residents in floodprone towns including but not limited to Frenchtown and Lambertville prepared for the floods by sandbagging vulnerable areas.
So, if the substantial rainfall that was predicted a couple of days later, the river would flood for (I think) the fourth time in four years. The predicted significant rainfall did not materialize, fortunately.
By March 15, the river was back down. I drove down with my friend to get some pictures of the River at more normal levels to provide a contrast with the pictures I got on March 6 when the River was at bankfull. We saw the sandbags that I photographed, in either Lambertville or Frenchtown. I got these shots. I was interested in the culvert which may have been the source of flooding in the adjacent parking lot.
I wrote a few days about my walk along the Delaware River south of Frenchtown NJ along the Delaware and Raritan Canal Towpath. Now I am not a Forester or otherwise an expert at tree identification, I am an amateur at this. And I have books that I use to help me. In particular, I found this book in our home library a few days ago:
Collins, Reryl Robichaud and Karl H. Anderson. 1994. Plant Communities of New Jersey: A study in Diversity. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.
They have a chapter on freshwater wetlands in northern New Jersey. While not specifically describing the Delaware River floodplains, perhaps because it forms the western border of NJ and PA, they do describe the floodplains of a river that is in the same physiographic region of NJ. Broadly speaking there are four physiographic regions in New Jersey, the portion of the Delaware River that I visit and the town I live in are in the piedmont region.
Collins and Anderson describe the plants located in the floodplain of the Raritan River in the piedmont regions. Two of the trees that they say are found in these floodplains are the River Birch, and the Sycamore. The links that I have provided are from a wetlands plants database from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They have a web interface that allows you to narrow your search of wetlands plants to your specific state and by plant type. If you are so inclined, check out the information provided on each of the links I provided for River Birches and Sycamores.
Speaking of Sycamores, I got to know Sycamores because they were numerous Sycamore trees located in the Hundson County town where we used to live. They line many of the residential streets in this town, and are also located in the parks, including the green area along the Passaic River.
I wrote about these two trees, because these were the common trees located in the region between the towpath that we were walking on and the Delaware River. Other trees that we saw were species of Maple and Oak, Hickory and/or Ash and Sweet Gum.
A word about Hickory and Ash. Both have what are known as compound leaflets (5 to 9 leaves). For more information on leaf terminology, see this webpage. There is an important but perhaps subtle difference between the leaf structure of Hickories and Ashes. I'm not sure that I can explain this in any way that will make sense. You will have to trust me that this difference can make it sometimes difficult to distinguish between Ash and Hickories, at least for me. Any tree guide, I have several tree guides including some very good guides put out by the Audubon Society, will have a chapter where they discuss various leaf types and other basic terminology used to identify trees.
Anyway, it was hard for me to distinguish between Ash and Hickory because the foiliage was too high for me to distinguish between the leaf structures of Ashes v Hickories. As for identifying trees by their bark, I am getting better, but it is still hard, sometimes requiring more study. Having read up on Ash and Hickories on my tree guides, when we go back, I may be better able to distinguish between the two.
Before I begin, I want to spend a very brief time on terminology. I have always used the term “NJ Pine Barrens” or the “Pine Barrens” when writing about the area some refer to as NJ Pinelands. I am going to continue to do so as I write about the Pine Barrens here unless what I am writing calls for using a more formal designation.
The Pine Barrens have miles upon miles of sand roads traversing the area.. Some go through designated State or Federal preserves, and others, well they just go where they go. The first time I spent some time driving on these sand roads, before I knew any better, I was not paying any attention to whether these roads were on State or Federal land. I saw a sand road, or what I incorrectly referred to as a “dirt road” and I wanted to drive on it.
At the time, I would spend time driving on various dirt roads in northeastern Vermont. These dirt roads were tough on the muffler on my little Honda Civic. I went through one or two mufflers thanks to Vermont. I quickly found out that these roads were a some times hard packed sand, not the rough and potted dirt roads that I was used to in Vermont.
My first tour on these sand roads was through what I now know is a pine forest, probably pitch and shortleaf pines. We had no map, so what I recall doing is driving in on this road for a while, then turning around and going back the way we came in. I was afraid to turn off on the intersecting sand roads fearing that I would get lost. And these were in the days of no cell phones so we would have been up a creek without a paddle. I loved the forest, love at first sight so to speak. There was something calming about the pine forest.
Then there was the time we were exploring other back roads, including sand roads not far from Tuckerton where we were staying. We started out going through another pine forest, and spending some time on sand roads. After several minutes, we passed through a small community. Perhaps a couple dozen houses give or take. It felt like magic and I was enthralled, a small community nestled among the pine forests of the Pine Barrens. We were never able to find this particular small community. I have even wondered if I am misremembering something. But I know what I saw, and I saw these houses.
As I spent more time in the Pine Barrens, I used more discretion in driving on sand roads in the Pine Barrens. Especially after walking on sand roads that I could not begin to imagine driving on. It takes effort to walk through loose sand! And there were a couple of times when we did a “k turn” on narrow dirt roads because we knew that if we went any further we risked getting stuck in loose sand.
Ok, one last post on the subject of the June 2006 Delaware River Floods. I was talking to a friend a few days ago who was years and years of experience in hydrology and water utilities management, the subject turned to floods so I brought up the Delaware River floods. In case you are wondering, hydrology, according to Websters, is a science dealing with the properties, distribution, and circulation of water on and below the earth's surface and in the atmosphere.
For awhile know I have been wondering if, instead of the State coming along and offering to "buy out" certain residential properties in flood prone areas, why couldn't the Government offer direct subsidies to help offset at least some of the costs of rehabbing the property to better with stand flooding. For example, putting a house on piers, raising outlets so that they are a three feet higher, suspending the furnace from the ceiling, and taking appliances including hot water heaters out of the basement or first floor, to name a few.
Well, I'm glad I talked to my friend, because he told me something which seemed very simple. That is, that it is not always possible to rehabs so a house will withstand flooding with minimal problems. I was reminded of all the times that people ask me about my "summer cabin" or camp in Vermont. It was not built to be lived in from mid-October to early-May. People are always asking me, why don't you have the house "winterized"? I reply that it is literally impossible to add insulation and otherwise seal off the house to keep it warm. First it is built on short piers, there is no basement, and no place for insulation. It just can't be done. I would be better off tearing the house down and building a new house.
So, I am back to square one. I have thiis idea in my head that I have to acknowledge may not work. I continue to think about all those people living along the Delaware who love the River and want to keep living there. Some are going to have the money, from various sources, to do the type of rehabbing that I am talking about. Just as important, they have a house that can be rehabbed. What happens to the people who can not afford to rehabb their house so that it can withstand floods. What happens to the people who own a house that can not be rehabbed?
On July 6, 2006, The Hunterdon Democrat reported on an engineer’s inspection of the Lambertville–New Hope bridge. The lowest visible portion of the bridge deck of the Lambertville–New Hope Bridge suffered some minor damage in the form of “slight denting.” None of the piers were damaged. The bridge passed weight–bearing load tests. Repairs will be necessary, and the Hunterdon Democrat is reporting that the engineers are saying that bridge is safe for vehicular traffic.
The assumption being that this was the result of damage from floating debris. This bridge, like the other crossings, were inspected prior to reopening to be sure that both the bridge and the roads were safe to reopen. The Hunterdon Democrat did make two interesting points in regards to the Lambertville–New Hope Bridge. One is that Emergency responders are encouraged to use the toll bridge (a couple of miles north) when possible. The second point is that guards are on duty 24 hours a day to enforce weight limits.
This bridge is known by locals as “the free bridge” when compared to the toll bridge where U.S. Highway 202 crosses the Delaware River about two miles north of the free bridge. For those of you who are not familiar with these two rivertowns, the free bridge connects the shopping/restaurant districts of Lambertville, NJ and New Hope, PA. Any longer–term closing of the free bridge has the potential to severely impact businesses in both towns.
I was interested in the fact the Hunterdon Democrat made a point of saying that guards are on duty 24 hours to enforce weight limits. Is this the normal course of operations for the bridge? I can only hope so. Weight limits should be enforced at all times, not just after a flood when the bridge sustained some minor damage.
I am sure that the Hunterdon Democrat will report on the status of these repairs if they are deemed newsworthy. This should be easy for me to do because I get the Hunterdon Democrat delivered to my home. I will monitor the local press over the coming weeks and months and report back here if anything interesting happens.
Frenchtown is about ten miles north of Lambertville NJ on the Delaware. In one of my earlier posts, I posted a link to some photos posted on the website of Emergency Management Services of Hunterdon County. For those of you who haven't visited this site in the past couple of weeks, I urge you to go back to the Hunterdon County EMS site to see some really awesome videos taken by Donna and Bill Knispel of Frenchtown NJ.
Speaking of debris, this video clip taken by the Knispels shows a rather large tree floating down the River.
I was able to view these video clips on my Mac with Quicktime. I don't know what you PC folk use to see videos on the web. I'd imagine that one of your windows programs will do fine.
