Forest Fire Water Supply at Hammonton
August 4th, 2007 at 8:45pm.
Tanker 16-5 and support 16-1 responded to the Hammonton/Burlington county line for water supply and stand by for a large forest fire. Tanker 16-5 filled forest fire trucks and stood by until 8:00 am Sunday morning. Three different crews switched off during the night to keep the crews fresh.
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From the Press of Atlantic City. Published: Sunday, August 5, 2007 Pinelands fire keeps burning Officials: Containment progress is expected By MAYA RAO and STEVEN LEMONGELLO, Press Staff Writers The fire that since Friday has swallowed nearly 2,500 acres in the Wharton State Forest in Burlington and Atlantic counties persisted Saturday, with nearly a third of it contained by that evening, state officials said. The cause of the Pinelands blaze, which started in a remote forest area of Washington Township and spread to areas in Hammonton and Shamong Township, is still under investigation, with no reported injuries or property damage, officials said. State officials briefly reopened an eight-mile stretch of Route 206, but closed it again Saturday evening as the smoke became too dense, according to state fire official Andy Sharpless. He said that officials will decide this morning whether to open the road once more; much of that decision depends on whether easterly winds continue to blow. State officials monitored the affected roads last night and New Jersey Department of Transportation officials will be at the scene today if needed, with signs alerting people to the smoke, officials said. It was a fire that authorities had expected to defeat far sooner. �As long as the weather keeps cooperating, we�re hoping to wrap this up very soon,� State Forester Jim Barresi said Saturday morning, adding that he expected Route 206 to reopen at midday. Yet smoke dimmed the skies well into the evening. Sirens wailed. Helicopters whirred overhead, transporting water from Atsion Lake to the forest. Throughout Saturday, local responders at the command post on Route 206 took in the sight as they stood among the trucks and tents, awaiting word from above. Atlantic County Salvation Army Coordinator Bruce Crowe arrived early to supply responders with water and food. �It�s isolated, but it�s big,� Crowe said. �It�s a lot bigger than it was yesterday. ... I don�t know if they�re having trouble with the back fires or what.� The few homes in the area, near the county border, were slowly obscured by smoke billowing in from the forest as the day progressed. At an afternoon news conference, Shawn Judy, incident commander for the Forest Fire Service, would not specify how long it would take to contain the fire � he would say only that the percentage of the fire contained would increase today. Shamong Township Mayor Jon Shevelew said he been hit with calls from many concerned residents, although the township sent an e-mail alert to residents that the situation was under control. All 40 of the township�s fire department and emergency medical services volunteers have joined the fire containment efforts, Shevelew said. �The good thing is nobody�s hurt,� he said. Farther down Route 206 in Hammonton, the owner of the Red Barn Cafe said that while the road closure may have affected business, it gave her time to reflect. �It just knocked the wind out of our August sales,� Evelyn Penza said. �The neighbors (Glossy Fruit) didn�t even open today. ... But on the good side, no one was harmed and no homes were hurt. There�s an upside and downside to the whole thing.� Wharton State Forest is the largest single tract of land in the state�s park system and spans about 115,000 acres. Officials said Friday that the fire was reported at 4 p.m. about 1� miles southeast of Atsion Lake and about eight miles northeast of central Hammonton; nearly 150 state fire service personnel, police and Department of Transportation officials responded. Fire in Wharton State Forest half contained The Associated Press Published: Sunday, August 5, 2007 ATSION, N.J. (AP) - A fire continued to burn Sunday in a remote area of pinelands in Wharton State Forest, with about four square miles consumed by the blaze. But state and local firefighters had 70 percent of the fire contained in the early evening, said Elaine Makatura, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Environmental Protection. No one was injured, and no homes or other structures were damaged, Makatura said. The cause of the fire, which started Friday, hadn't been determined. Part of U.S. 206 had been closed down because of the fire, but authorities had it reopened at about 11 a.m., according to Frank Pallante, an assistant division fire warden with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. About 50 to 60 state and local firefighters were using controlled burns and other methods to clear potential fuel out of the way of the fire to contain it, Pallante said. The Air National Guard, Pallante said, had helicopters dumping water on the blaze. There were worries that winds, along with sunny, dry weather, would cause flare-ups through the day on Sunday. The fire was about 25 miles southeast of Philadelphia. It was the first major forest fire in southern New Jersey since a blaze in May destroyed about 17,000 acres on the border of Ocean and Burlington counties. Wharton is the largest of New Jersey's state forest preserves, covering nearly 115,000 acres in Atlantic, Burlington and Camden counties.
