2023 Annual Report – Wildland Fire Program

Welcome back, everyone! It’s that time of year when we are prepping for the spring fire season and the return of our Single Engine Air Tankers and helicopters at the tanker bases in Hazleton and MidState. Let’s take a moment to look at the annual report from 2023 for the Wildland Fire Program.

Our program protects 17 million acres of land and 10 million acres of wildland-urban interface and intermix from wildfire. We have 928 volunteer Forest Fire Wardens and 356 fire-qualified employees. Our mission is to safely and effectively manage wildland fires to enhance and protect life, property, and natural resources for the public benefit within Pennsylvania.

For those of you who have been following our blog for a bit, you know that last year’s wildfire season was above average with 1,901 wildfires being reported during the year. This is interesting because that makes four years in a row that we have had more than 1,000 reported wildfires – something we haven’t seen since the 1980s. Several large fires did occur across the state, the largest of which was the Crystal Lake fire, burning over 4,000 acres.

Crystal Lake fire at night.

Some quick statistics for the 2023 season:

• 1,901 wildfires
• 9,186 acres burned
• 99% of the fires were human-caused
• 3 residences were destroyed
• 24 other structures were destroyed

Our employees and volunteers conducted 540 wildfire prevention events last year, that involved 3,450 hours of work and reached around 500,000 people.

Smokey Bear paid a visit to Governor Shapiro's office to record a public service announcement to address wildfire prevention.

The Crystal Lake fire required our Incident Management Team to be deployed, while other team members were also deployed as single resources to western wildfires throughout the year to maintain and enhance their qualifications.

Incident Management Team members on the Crystal Lake wildfire, April 2023.

2023 saw 142 volunteer fire organizations awarded $883,143 in grants to purchase wildland firefighting PPE and firefighting equipment. These grants are made possible by funding through the USDA Forest Service. Our FederalEexcess program obtained over 209 items valued at $665,555 for distribution to local fire departments.

Speaking of firefighting equipment, here is a quick breakdown of operations within the Fire Cache last year:

• 65,000 items received
• 45,000 items issued
• 21,200 delivery miles
• The cache supported the mobilization of crews, engines, overhead, and training

2023 was an active year for wildfires nationwide as well. A quick breakdown of our Wildland Fire Crew’s assistance provided:

• Four Twenty-person Type 2IA Hand Crews
• One Wildfire Suppression Module
• Eight Type 6 Wildland Fire Engine Assignments
• 69 Single-Resource Overhead Assignments
• 167 Total Resources Assigned

Type 2IA fire crew "Independence" in Northern California, September 2023.

Let’s not forget about the Air Operations within the state:

• 39 wildfires supported
• 186,000 gallons dropped on wildfires
• 84 hours of flight time on wildfires
• 51 hours flown for fire reconnaissance

Air tanker dropping retardant on the Crystal Lake fire.

A quick look at our Wildland Fire Training and Qualifications:

• 113 classroom training sessions
• 1,522 students completed classroom courses
• 594 students completed online training courses
• 113 Task Books issued
• 74 Task Books completed

Over 300 students received training at the annual Pennsylvania Wildland Fire Academy, Shippensburg University, Michaux, and Tuscarora State Forests. June 2023.

Finally, a look at our Prescribed Fire program: 50 prescribed burns covering 1,471 acres of DCNR lands were completed. Statewide, 423 individual burns were conducted on 14,600 acres. Some prescribed burning was reduced or shortened due to extremely dry conditions in the late spring and early summer.

Prescribed fire in Michaux State Forest during a fall burn, November 2023.

“DCNR would like to thank everyone who assisted the wildland fire program in 2023, especially our valuable network of volunteers. We could not succeed without your dedication and service!”