Uses of Fire by Native Americans

Direct link to Nov 2013 video from the National Interagency Fire Center

I got interested in how Indigenous Peoples (or Native Americans) used wildfires because of a book by Jordan Thomas, When it All Burns. I am currently reading the second chapter where he spends several pages at the end of the chapter writing about the historic uses of fire by Indigenous Peoples in California and elsewhere to control their land, including but not limited to clearing land for food. I decided that I wanted to find a short video to share with you on this subject and found this video, "Traditional Uses of Fire", by the National Interagency Fire Center. I am not here to suggest that homeowners use prescribed or controlled burning, for example this practice is illegal in many areas of the U.S. without prior approval by state or local authorities. Rather I like the video because they discuss traditional uses for fire by Indigenous Peoples.

Many, Many Thanks to All First Responders for Your Service

Direct link to video (September 2015) from Thank-you First Responder on YouTube

On this day before Thanksgiving in the U.S. in 2025, I find myself being extremely thankful for the service of all first responders: wildland firefighters, structure firefighters. law enforcement, emergency medical technicians and ambulance drivers, and all support staff to first responders. What you do helps to keep us safe. Some of you will be working or otherwise on call on Thanksgiving, thanks so much for your service on this holiday. 

I wish all of you who celebrate, a very Happy Thanksgiving. I will be having a quiet holiday with my small family.

Brush Fire in Large Yard in Franklin Lakes NJ (Nov. 19th)

Direct link to November 21st video from FreedomNews TV NYC on YouTube

I again thank my friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page for sharing this video on their webpage the other day. I am always interested in the work that structure and wildland firefighters do to work and contain small brushfires. There are a large number of smaller wildfires or brush fires in New Jersey every year. I know that many brush fires in New Jersey are small and able to be contained by structure firefighters as appears to be the case with this wildfire in Franklin Lakes NJ (Bergen County) that burned near homes, fortunately the areas burned by this brush fire was large enough enabling the firefighters to contain the fire before it could reach the homes.   I have a high level of confidence that the brush fire that you are seeing in this video is the same brush fire reported by News12 New Jersey about a brush fire that burned was reported at about 4 AM on November 19th and was under control by 5:30 AM. Structure firefighters from nearby communities helped fight this brush fire. I do not know the size of the brush fire. I applaud all the structure firefighters for their good work in bringing this brush fire under control in a short time frame.

About BLM Helitack Crews

Direct link to July 2023 from the National Interagency Fire Center on YouTube

For this week's Friday Fun take a look at this seven minute video from the National Interagency Fire Center discussing what a Bureau of Land Management Helitack crew does. As the introduction to the video points out an obvious benefit is seeing beautiful country from the air. But there is a lot more. I have oodles of respect for helitack crews who are flown to wildland fires in remote areas. If the helitack helicopter has a bucket the helicopter will drop water on the fire after the helitack crew is dropped off.  Kudos to the pilots flying these helicopters and the helitack crews they fly. Just as important are all the personnel providing various support service to keep helitack crews flying.

Video review of 2024 Wildfire Season in the Tri-State Area

Direct link to November 2024 video on News 12 Originals

I have already written about the 2024 wildfire season in New Jersey, the worst in history. 2024 was also a very bad wildfire year in New York City, and nearby counties in New York as well as in Connecticut.  Here are two posts that I have written on the 2024 wildfire season in New Jersey: (1) a November 2024 post summarizing the 2024 wildfire season where I did my best to summarize the major wildfires in New Jersey in 2024 using information from the NJ Forest Fire Service and various local media outlets , and (2) a February 2025 post providing an historical perspective going back to 2013 as well as wildfires by month in New Jersey in 2024 (this post was possible due to the good work of the NJ Forest Association and the NJ Forest Fire Service).

I was intrigued when I learned of the News 12 Originals video from my friends at the B10 New Jersey Wildfire Page. This video was posted on November 2025 with an original airdate in November 2024. I do get News 12 New Jersey but missed this report. While perhaps on the long side (21 minutes) for a blog post I liked the summary of wildfires in the Tri-State provided by News 12 reporters so I decided to share this video with you.

2025 wildfires in New Jersey: In a NJFFS press conference on April 23rd NJFFS Fire Chief, Bill Donnelly said that for 2025 through April 23rd, 662 wildfires have burned 16,572 acres. Two of these wildfires were over 1,000 acres: Jones Rd Fire in Ocean County, 15,300 acres and Danny's Fire in Cumberland County, 1,300 acres. I do not yet have any information on the number and size of wildfires that burned in New Jersey after April 23rd. 

2025 Wildfire Season: Alaska Wildfire Season Highlights

Direct link to Nov 14th video from Alaska DNRDOF on YouTube 

I have never been to Alaska and don't know if I will ever get there. However, for reason that I won't get into here I have a special interest in Alaska including but not limited to the challenges posed by wildfires. I am grateful to my friends at the B10 NJ Wildfire Page for sharing this video  from Alaska DNRDOF summarizing the 2025 Alaska wildfire season. The video is over 13 minutes and I enjoyed watching the wildland firefighters working fire in Alaska along with images of aerial support.

Friday Fun: Medevac Helicopter Landing on I-81 in VA Responding to an Accident

Direct link to July 2022 video from Michael Miller on YouTube

I know that one of the important things that helicopters can do such as medevac helicopters is providing transportation to hospitals of accident victims and critically ill people, transportation that can often be quicker than ground transport. I live not far from my local hospital and when I see a helicopter flying over my house at a lower altitude there is a decent chance that the helo is transporting someone to the emergency room. The hospital has an appropriate landing pad for the helicopter. While I have not personally been an interstate while traffic was stopped so a helicopter can transport and accident victim I know that this happens. I was on I-81 about five years returning home when we diverted to local roads because of a bad accident on the interstate. As we were on local roads, thanks to our alert from AAA, I have no idea if a helicopter serviced the accident or if it was only ambulances or a combination of the two. I was glad to get off the interstate and away from the traffic.

In this July 2022 video that I shared above, the video was posted by Michael Miller, a Medevac helicopter pilot was flying out of Virginia in July 2022. I enjoyed watching this video to get an idea of what it is like to see a Medevac helicopter working an accident on an interstate. Michael does a good service flying Medevac helicopters. 

Ag Aviation Helicopters

 

Direct link to July 2025 video by Garrett Stanfield on YouTube

I am interested in Ag Aviation so I do post on this every so often as I last did on November 3rd. On a somewhat quiet day I wanted to make a post highlighting what an Ag Aviation helicopter can do. I found the above video this morning to share with you. 

Thanks to All Veterans for Your Service

I pause on this day before Veterans Day to make an early post in honor of Veterans Day. I offer my heartfelt thanks to all veterans for your service and the sacrifices you made to keep us safe. 

Direct link to Oct 31 2024 vid from Aerial Northwest on YouTube

A Wildland Firefighters First Assignment from NIFC

Direct link to the April 2025 video from the National Interagency Fire Center on YouTube

I have been referencing videos shared by the National Interagency Fire Center this week and I continue sharing NIFC videos today. The NIFC website has a lot of good information, it may be found here. One of the ways I learn more about wildland firefighting and keeping up with current events in the wildland fire community is through videos and social media. The video that I shared above offers a quick look at what a wildland firefighter's first assignment under NIFC will be like. I suspect that the experience of a wildland firefighter in a State system, e.g. New Jersey, will be different as some State wildfires are not under NIFC.

Drone Safety Near Fire Zones

Direct link to August 2025 video from the National Interagency Fire Center 

There are lot of good and safe uses for drones, and the FAA has regulations for flying drones including when drone owners must register their drones, for more information see this FAA website on unmanned aircraft systems (aka drones). In addition the Forest Service under the USDA has a nice webpage on the safe recreational use of drones that may be found here,  one of their bullet points focuses on operations near wildfires: "Never fly your UAS over or in close proximity to any fire operation (wildfire or prescribed).  UAS flights over fire operations disrupt aerial firefighting operations and create hazardous situations." I have nothing against drones, I have seen good drone footage and am aware that agencies and the media and individuals safely operate drones and follow FAA regulations in their drone operationms

The FAA has a pdf file that they call "Drones & Wildfires Digital Toolkit", they talk about flight restrictions that are often in place over wildfires, penalties for illegally flying drones near wildfires and how to report illegal drone activity near a wildfire. They also refer to how first responders can get approval to fly drones near a wildfire. They include a paragraph on why it is dangerous to fly drones near wildfires:

The US Forest Service states: 

Firefighting aircraft fly at very low altitudes, typically just a couple of hundred feet above the ground, the same altitude as drones flown by members of the public and others. This creates the potential for a mid-air collision or pilot distraction that could result in a serious or fatal accident. In addition, an unauthorized UAS that loses its communication link could fall from the sky, causing serious injuries or deaths of firefighters or members of the public on the ground. Unauthorized UAS flights could lead fire managers to suspend aerial wildfire suppression operations – such as airtankers dropping fire retardant and helicopters dropping water – until the UAS has left the airspace and they are confident it won’t return.

Please fly your drone safely and legally and please stay away from the airspace over wildfires.

About Ag Aviation (crop dusting) from the pilot of a crop duster

Direct link to 2020 video from Scott Palmer on YouTube

I have seen crop dusters in action in New Jersey both over north western New Jersey where I live and down in the cranberry farms in the New Jersey Pinelands in central and southern New Jersey. I have also heard about crop dusters in northern New England. My point is that is not just in larger farms in the midwest and the west where you will crop dusters, as you see in this video, but crop dusting happens across the United States and Canada and elsewhere. Enjoy this video about crop dusting in 2020 from Scott Palmer who talks about crop dusting in this 2020 video.

Airtanker Operations: Coulson's Air Attack

Direct link to August 2023 video from Brit Coulson of Coulson Aviation on YouTube

One of the important elements of how airtankers of various sizes and helicopters work in the air to help firefighters on the ground to fight wildfires are the aircraft known as air attack. Air attack aircraft coordinate the aerial operations above the fire. Lead planes will lead the tanker or helicopter into the fire to make their drop. Watch to this eight minute video from Brit Coulson of Coulson Aviation where the various aspects that make up air attack are discussed. 

NOAA Hurrican Hunter "Kermit" Flys into Hurricane Melissa

Direct link to October 27, 2025 video taken by Lt. Col. Mark White, navigator with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, flying into Hurricane Melissa

I have a great deal of respect for those who fly on Hurricane Hunter aircraft into Hurricanes. They do important work to provide good information with the goal of keeping us as safe as possible from hurricanes. 

I found a nice article by Matthew Cappuci, a regular contributor to the Washington Post and a Meteorologist with the weather app “MyRadar. He flew on “Kermit”, a NOAA hurricane hunter, on a mission flying through Hurricane Melissa. There were 19 people onboard Kermit, pilots, flight engineers, and researchers. Here is an excerpt from Cappuci’s October 27th article on the Washington Post (this article is a gift that expires in ten days on or about November 8th, for those coming on after November 8th I hope that you will still have free access to this article). Here is an excerpt from Cappuci's article to give you an idea of what it was like on Kermit:

Winds in the eyewall reach ridiculous speeds; over the open ocean, winds were gusting 140 mph or more. Eventually, all the rising air in an eyewall collides with the ceiling of the lower atmosphere; we call that the tropopause. Some of the air bounces against that ceiling, curling downward. It sinks (subsides), warms up and dries out. That punches out an oasis of calm: the eye. …

And then it happened. We emerged from the mist. A fingernail moon hung overhead in the deep twilight. I pressed my face against the glass. My jaw dropped.

I was sitting in the middle of a 10-mile-wide stadium of the gods. On all sides, hulking thunderstorms towered high above me — yet, directly overhead, the stars twinkled. With the faint glow offered by the moon, I could see brushstroke-like striations as the clouds in the eyewall swung around the eye at breakneck speeds. But, for a moment, I was in an oasis of calm.

My prayers are with all those affected by Hurricane Melissa as she struck Cuba and Jamaica, see this report from CBS News for more information.

Mobilization of Resources to Wildfires Through the National Interagency Coordination Center

Direct link to March 2022 video from the National Interagency Fire Center on YouTube

I do know that aerial and ground resources from one state can be deployed to a wildfire in another state through the National Interagency Coordination Center (NIFC) . But I was not quite certain of how these deployments work. Thanks to this march 20222 video that I just found today on the NIFC website I am finally able to share some good and reliable information with you about how emergency resources are mobilized. The video is a little over eight minutes long.

Friday Fun: CL-415 Scoopers, 2024 Fire Season

Direct link to November 2024 video from Michael Redwine on YouTube

A video from Michael Redwine summarizing the CL-415 Scoopers flying wildfires during the 2024 fire season. Enjoy

San Diego County CA Approved Purchase of Firehawk Helicopter for Nighttime Firefighting

 

Direct link to October 21st video from CBS 8 San Diego on YouTube

I want to thank my friends from the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page for sharing this video on their webpage this morning.

I do try to follow aerial fire operations in other States including California but I may not  post about changes in a States aerial fire fleet right away. I am making an exception to this by sharing this video saying that San Diego County has approved $38 million for a Firehawk helicopter with the ability to fly fires at night. I have some close friends in San Diego County who know how to stay safe from wildfires, and I am always interested in available aerial resources to keep my friends safe from wildfires. This Firehawk, a type 1 firefighting helicopter, will have a 1,000 gallon tank, the ability to carry 12 firefighters and will be ready to fly in the spring of 2026.  This will mean that the County does not have to request a Calfire Firehawk from an adjoining county. In addition to dropping water and transporting firefighters to wildfires this helicopter will be used for rescues. Another source of information is this article from the San Diego County News Center.

The San Diego County Fire Protection District  has a lot of good information relevant to fire safety. Unfortunately, I can  not find an online listing of any current county owned or contracted resources. I do know that Calfire’s aviation resources  are available to San Diego County .

About NJ Wildfire SMART

Direct link to March 2025 video from the NJ Dept of Environmental Protection 

I want to thank my friends from the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page for sharing this video on their webpage over the last few days. My friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page share wildfire videos every day as well as photos of wildfires in and around NJ. They are a good resources and I visit their website a few times a week.

I had seen NJ Wildfire SMART on the New Jersey Forest Fire Service website  where they have a page devoted to NJ Wildfire SMART. Briefly NJ Wildfire SMART stands for safety, mitigation, awareness, response, and training. If you go to this page you can learn more details about each. I liked the video that I shared above for providing a brief overview of NJ Wildfire SMART. As an aside, as some of you know, I love the NJ Pinelands and have driven on  some of the sand roads in the Pinelands including the Bass River State Forest mentioned in this video. I appreciate the efforts that goes into maintaining these roads and more importantly to efforts in the Pinelands to mitigate wildland fires.

Friday Fun: Super Scoopers in Action

Direct link to September 2024 video on YouTube

Direct link to August 2017 video on YouTube

Super Scoopers are a great aerial resources for aerial firefighting because as you see in these two videos they scoop water out of a water body and fly to the wildfire to make a drop. The Scooper can make a many drops, the number depending on the distance to the fire and available fuel. I know that two Super Scoopers were on contract In California starting September 1st of 2025, I am not sure how long the contract period is. In January of 2025 Bridger Aerospace sent two Scoopers to California to help fight wildfires. Last but by no means least Super Scoopers from Bridger Aerospace were deployed to Minnesota May 2025 to provide needed aerial support in fighting wildfires.

Home Fire Safety: Preventing Home ignition in the Wildland-Urban Interface

Prevent Home Ignition, Part 1; Video from the National Fire Protection Video on YouTube

Prevent Home Ignition, Part 2; Video from the National Fire Protection Video on YouTube

Continuing with residential fire safety, I shared two videos from the National Fire Protection Association, they have a nice YouTube channel with lots of videos including many videos addressing fire safety in the houses iin the wildland-urban interface. However, I think that some of the things that they address in this video might be of interested to folk like me who do not live in the wildland-urban interface..