Controlled burns, new fire tower help crews prepare for the peak of wildfire season
The Forest Fire Service intentionally set fires Wednesday to help prevent another near-disaster, and it has some new tools to help them along the way, including a new watch tower.
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New Jersey has faced several large, dangerous wildfires in the last two years, like the Jones Road fire in Lacey Township last April, that led to thousands of evacuations.
The Forest Fire Service intentionally set fires Wednesday to help prevent another near-disaster, and it has some new tools to help them along the way, including a new watch tower.
“We’re trying to take advantage of this weather up until April 1 to get as much control burning to reduce the hazard,” said Deale Carey, a section fire warden with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
Deale Carey and his crew want these woods to burn.
“If a wildfire should happen this year, or several years down the road, the woods have been thinned out,” said Carey.
It’s all to prevent situations like the Jones Road Fire which forced 5,000 people out of their homes.
“This time of year when fires do start, they can become pretty violent, aggressive and crazy based on the weather, fuel loading, how dry it is so just keep fire in the back of your mind,” said Bill Donnelly, chief of the NJ Forest Fire Service.
To help spot and fight wildfires, the Veteran’s Fire Tower, standing 130 feet tall at a cost of $1.7 million, was built in Jackson Township as a replacement for the Lakewood tower which recently closed.
“The key job for the observer in the tower is to locate, detect and report fires in the state of New Jersey,” said Justin Sauers, a forest fire observer stationed at the top of the Veteran’s Fire Tower.
Monitors will use an alidade to line up the smoke and then coordinate with other watch towers to pinpoint the exact location.
“Early detection is an important part of our program to make sure people are protected,” said Ed Potosnak, the acting commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Crews hope to burn 25,000 acres before the peak of the season, which runs from April until leaf-out in mid-May. The experts say it only takes one day of sunshine after a heavy rainfall this time of year to create conditions ripe for wildfires.
