FIRE STARTERS
Experts offer safety tips at start of forest fire season
Posted by the Ocean County Observer on 03/23/07
BY CHRIS LUNDY
STAFF WRITER
It's getting warmer. People are spending more time outside. A new season is here.
Not spring. Forest fire season.
March 15 marked the beginning of forest fire season, said C. Bertram Plante, division fire warden for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
It lasts until about May 15, and sets off a window where forest fires are more likely to occur, he said. The dates are just rough estimates for when the danger is at its peak.
In Ocean County, short-term weather has more of an impact on forest fires than whether it was a dry winter, like in other parts of the state, he said.
By way of example, there was a forest fire near the Robert C. Miller Air Park in Berkeley that lost about 120 acres in the 1990s, just two days after an inch of rain, he said.
Pine and oak trees grow leaves late in the season, remaining dry and flammable, he said.
The soil doesn't hold moisture very well, so a few dry days and a strong wind is all it takes, he said.
The service has performed some controlled burns lately to try to head off forest fires, he said.
According to statistics from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, there were 162 controlled burns from Jan. 1 to March 18 this year, with 162 acres burned. This is compared to 423 fires with 965.25 acres burned last year.
The weather hasn't been very cooperative this year for controlled burns, Plante said. The service will stop doing them April 1.
"Once we get into spring, the conditions become too dangerous to be setting fires on purpose," he said.
He warned against carelessly smoking cigarettes, illegally burning trash, and dumping fireplace ash.
Arson accounts for 40 percent of forest fires in New Jersey, according to service figures. Children start 17 percent, smoking starts 9 percent, and camp fires start 6 percent. Equipment use accounts for 6 percent, 4 percent is debris burning, railroads cause 3 percent, lightning is 1 percent, and 14 percent is attributed to miscellaneous causes.
Wooded areas and neighborhoods weave together throughout Ocean County and particularly in Toms River, said Jim Mercready, assistant chief inspector of the Toms River Fire Prevention Bureau.
"If a fire is to occur, it encroaches into the homeowner's property," he said.
There are measures to reduce the danger, he said. This includes removing anything that could add fuel to the fire, such as debris and leaves.
"If a forest fire is to come through one of these areas, it has tremendous heat and energy, and it tends to feed on anything in its path," he said.
This year has already seen two notable brush fires.
In Barnegat, resident Mark Logan was charged with arson in connection with a fire that started near his Deck Street home, police said.
The fire, which he started with a butane lighter, damaged approximately 200 square feet of wooden area, police said.
In Brick, state and local firefighters responded to a brush fire March 15 in a wooded area off Adamston Road.
No one was injured in either situation. |
