Incident Management Team - South Carolina

UPDATE:

Good morning everyone!

The Incident Management Team that was deployed to South Carolina will return to Pennsylvania on Monday, October 30. Their last day will be Sunday, October 29.

This year was the first year Pennsylvania has sent IMTs outside of the state. Everyone's efforts were greatly appreciated!

Advantages of Fire

Most of the time when a person hears the word 'fire' they only think of the negatives and the destruction, when sometimes fire can be beneficial to our environment. They can benefit plants: reducing disease spread, releasing nutrients and encouraging growth.

Some coniferous trees have cones that rely on heat to release the seeds. They are called serotinous cones.

Serotinous cones are covered in a resin that must be melted before the cone can open and release the seeds. As the fire moves through a forest and the cones open, the seeds are distributed by the wind. There is a species of pine that grows from Georgia to Pennsylvania that has serotinous cones – Table Mountain pine (Pinus pungens). It grows in dry, rocky sites.

Table Mountain pine (Pinus pungens) range

Table Mountain pine (Pinus pungens) cones.

Another example of fire being beneficial is with the Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), it requires fire to burn off plants surrounding it. Plants compete for nutrients, light, water and space. As a seedling, the Longleaf pine grows a large root system and has very long waxy needles surrounding the buds. They do this because of the frequent ground fires to protect the seedlings while the other plants are burned off – resulting in less competition.

Because of fire suppression and human development the Longleaf pine ecosystem has degraded from an area of approximately 90 million acres to about 2 million acres. Foresters have been using fire to regain the Longleaf pine areas.

Disease and pests that prey on trees are easily destroyed by fire. More trees die each year from pests and diseases than fires. They also help eliminate invasive species such as Japanese knotweed.

Prescribed fire is one of the more important tools that foresters possess to manage our ecosystems. By burning away the loads of fuels, prescribed fires make locations safer for potential future fires. If all fire is suppressed, fuel can add up and allow larger, sometimes uncontrollable, fires to occur. These fires could be so intense that seeds could be destroyed in the soil, which will hinder new growth.

Fire kicks off vital natural processes by breaking down organic matter into nutrients, which are brought back into the soil (usually by rain). This provides a rich seedbed for plants. The process that a forest undergoes after a fire is called ecological succession.

Eastern meadowlarks benefit from fires; the fires help maintain meadowlands which the birds use for food and rest. White-tailed deer benefit from the new growth for food.

If you would like to learn more about how wildfires are affected by fuels, topography and weather you can click here to read more.

Incident Management Team - South Carolina

Update:

Pennsylvania has sent an incident management team out for Hurricane support, combined with members from FEMA, they will be working out of  Charleston, South Carolina.  Their assignment will be to  run a FEMA receiving and distribution center, just as they did in New Jersey. This center will be supporting Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.  Their assignment is for seven days, with the possibility to extend. The team departed Sunday morning at 10:45 and arrived there Sunday evening. Their first operational period was Monday 10/16/2017.

Weather and Fires

Weather and Fires

Weather plays a part in all the stages of a fire’s life. Wind aids in the progress and drought conditions make for favorable fire conditions.

The three parts of weather that can affect fires are:

·         Temperature

·         Wind

·         Moisture

Temperature is one of the key components of the fire triangle because it generates heat. Warmer temperatures allow fuels to ignite and burn faster. Fires tend to rage in the afternoon hours when the temperature is hottest.

Wind has the biggest and most unpredictable impact on fires. It dries fuels more, provides the fire with another pillar from the fire triangle – oxygen, and pushes the fire further.

Large, violent wildfires can create vertical tilted, masses of swirling air generated by the fire’s heat, these phenomena are called fire whirls. They have been known to hurl debris over large distances.

A fire can generate its own winds that can be up to 10 times faster than surrounding winds. Because of the way winds affect them, fires can sometimes seem like they have a mind of their own – throwing embers into the air and creating more fire, in a process called spotting. Wind can also push fires further up, igniting the canopy of trees, creating a crown fire.

We have discussed factors that help fire, there is another aspect of weather than can hinder fires – moisture. Humidity can go both ways to be a help or be a hindrance to fire. If humidity is low there is less moisture in the air, so fires can ignite. However, if the humidity is high, fuels are less likely to ignite. Rain and other precipitation increase the moisture in fuels and as a result suppress potential wildfires.

If you would like to learn more about how wildfires are affected by fuels, topography and weather you can click here to read more.

Fire Tower Friday

Today I would like to share with you a Fire Tower in Pennsylvania that I found to be of interest!

SNOWY MOUNTAIN FIRE TOWER

Fire District 1

The Snowy Mountain tower was built in 1975 by the Aermotor Windmill Company in Franklin county. The tower stands 80 feet above ground level, and while it is not currently manned it could be if required. 

The current tower took the place of the original Aermotor tower built in 1930; On October 29, 1973 vandals cut two of the four legs with hacksaws and felled the tower. They were eventually caught and were charged with replacing the tower at a cost of $45,800 -  that is the tower standing today. 

Snowy Mountain is registered in the National Historic Lookout Register under Registry Number: US 388, PA 9. It was registered on July 1, 2001 after being nominated by Michael Kusko, Jr., District Forester. 

Fall Fire Season

Just a small update that the PA fall fire season is starting to gear up. 

In District 9 alone there were several fires in one day.