Tanker 463; Fire Season 2017

Tanker 463; Fire Season 2017
Photo by Bill Barr - CLICK ME!

Monday, August 21, 2023

Wildland Fire Crew Updates

The most recent update for our wildland fire crews as of 8/11/2023:

  1. PA-PAS Keystone (21 Personnel): This resource is presently assigned to the Ridge Fire. The crew has been actively involved in both Division A and Division B, engaging in preparatory work for planned burnout and direct handline operations. The CRWB (Crew Boss) reports high morale among the crew, which is conducting a large number of chainsaw operations. You can find more details about the Ridge Fire here: Ridge Fire Information.
  1. E-603 (4 Personnel): Currently stationed in Woodville, Texas, this resource forms part of an IA (Initial Attack) task force. The team has responded to several fires since its arrival. The ENGB (Engine Boss) remarked on the prevailing hot and dry conditions, which are projected to persist in the coming weeks.
  1. PA-PAS Liberty (21 Personnel): Recently arrived at the Northwest Land Office in Kalispell, Montana, this resource is also set to join an IA task force for the time being.

We also received some photos from both of our crews for you to view!

Keystone:












Liberty:

"I thought I'd pass along a few pics of the crew mopping up and felling snags on the Woodward Fire, near Swan Lake, MT."




Thursday, August 10, 2023

Pennsylvania Fire Seasons

We’d like to take the time to discuss something that you may, or may not, already know about Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania has what is called a bimodal fire season – this means that we have two separate fire seasons. A common thought is that fire season is summertime, and this could be attributed to all the coverage of fires in the Western part of our nation – which occur mainly in the summer.

Our nation has several different times for fire seasons. Fire season characteristics are driven by seasonal and continental-scale weather patterns, their movement, and variation. Seasonal air mass and jet stream changes affect various regions at different times and in different ways. In Pennsylvania, our problem times are in the spring (March through May) and fall (October through November), the Great Lakes, Northeast and Southeast all have similar patterns – unlike the rest of the nation having a “summer” fire season. However, our Spring season can extend well into summer if the jet stream remains active and brings windy/dry events that are preceded by dry conditions of two weeks or more. Much like what we saw at the end of Spring into early Summer.



We have previously discussed why the Spring is our primary fire season, with a flare up again in the fall. But just as a refresher, or if this is your first visit here, we will touch on it again. The typical pattern experienced east of the Rockies is a frequent occurrence of dry, or nearly dry, cold frontal passages over a somewhat long timeframe. This is the main mean of drying for our fuels, especially in the winter/early spring and fall. Why? Because we have deciduous trees here in good ol’ PA and they drop their leaves, allowing for a big open canopy. This means the sun can heat up the forest floor much easier than in the late spring and summer, along with limited shelter from the wind. The saving grace lies in how much snowpack we had over the winter. If we had a decent amount, all the litter and duff will be compacted and harder to dry out. On the flip side if we have a winter like we just did, where we had very little snow, the litter will still be all fluffy and easy to dry out. Thankfully, the front patterns are less likely to occur in the summer here, plus our trees are nice and green – keeping those canopies shaded.

This year we saw two large, difficult fires: the largest to note was the Crystal Lake fire that started on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, and was 100% contained on Sunday, April 16, 2023. That incident happened near Mountain Top, Luzerne County in the Pinchot State Forest. The Crystal Lake fire burned 4319 acres and did result in a temporary closure of the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Northeast Extension. The Crystal Lake fire was caused by incendiary devices. There was also the Pool Hollow fire, near Sandy Ridge, Centre County which burned 1,445 acres. That fire started Thursday, April 20, 2023, and was 100% contained on Saturday, April 22, 2023. Pool Hollow was started due to equipment use.

Photo Credit: Pete Zoschg
Crystal Lake, District 11 (Pinchot) near Mountain Top Pa.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Hamilton
Pool Hollow, District 9 (Moshannon) near Sandy Ridge.


Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Wildland Fire Crew Update 8/8/2023

Good morning!

We have a slew of updates at once because things moved quite fast between last Wednesday (8/2/2023) and yesterday (8/7/2023) morning.

  1. PA-PAS - Keystone (21 Personnel): We gathered the crew members at the Red Lion Hotel on 8/2/2023 later in the evening where they overnighted to leave in rental vehicles to their first destination on 8/3/2023.This crew was en route to a request from the Northern Rockies Geographic Area Coordination Center (GACC), as of 8/4/2023. Upon reaching Wyoming, they received new orders to report to the Ridge fire in Montana.
  2. E-603 (4 Personnel): This engine was dispatched Friday (8/4/2023) and is heading toward Conroe, TX. 
  3. PA-PAS - Liberty: We had been contacted by Montana requesting a Type 2 IA Crew, and although we did not have one posted, we did have enough personnel available to fill this request. The crew was gathered at the Red Lion Hotel on 8/6/2021 where they overnighted to leave 8/7/2023 in rental vehicles. They should recieve a new order when they get closer to their destination.
  4. In total, we have 19 single resources deployed in 7 different states. The majority of these resources (16) were deployed earlier this week.