60th anniversary of the Chatsworth Fire

[Boyd]

I have been re-reading John McPhee's The Pine Barrens in bits and pieces, and just got to this part (pages 107-110)….

July 12, 1954 was a hot day in a time of drought. The woods of the greater Chatsworth area were "loaded with fuel" as foresters put it, for there had been no large fires in the section for some years. The Chatsworth Fire, as it eventually came to be known, started in a cedar swamp nine miles northwest of the town. Eddie Parker saw it at 4:04 PM and called it in.

At 8 A.M on July 14th, a fire warden named William Phoenix flew over the fire in a light plane and reported that it seemed to be pretty much under control. That afternoon, however, winds even higher than those of the two previous days came up, and, before them, several new head fires developed in broadly separated places. These new head fires jumped the previous lines of containment. They crowned and, like warships converging, they moved toward Chatsworth. By this time, some two hundred fire trucks from all over central and southern New Jersey, and even from Pennsylvania, had arrived.

By nightfall, the winds were moving at seventy miles an hour, and Chatsworth did seem to be doomed. Sparks from the returning fire were actually showering into the streets when rain began to fall. A brief but extremely heavy rainstorm drenched Chatsworth. People who watched the fire from distant hills say that the storm moved across the woods like a dark, reaching arm and, coming to the reddest part of the fire, killed it. Segments burned on for three weeks more, but most of the destruction had been ended by the storm over Chatsworth, which saved the town. Twelve buildings were burned, and nineteen thousand five hundred acres of land.

 

[Boyd]

This is from Arcadia Publishing's excellent Images of America: New Jersey Forest Fire Service book

(note: I have removed the image I posted here since I don't own the copyright)

 

[dogg57]

118 Buildings destroyed, wonder how many if any were rebuilt

 

[46er]

In 14 days the anniversary of the '77 Bass River fire with 4 fatalities.

 

[ecampbell]

Memorial for the firefighters. I'll have to visit the next time I'm down that way.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2TRW_In_Memory_of_Four_Fireman_Eagleswood_Twp_NJ
http://www.wlfalwaysremember.org/incident-lists/200-bass-river-2.html

An interesting document of Burlington County wildfire risk assessment. There is a table starting on page 15 which lists major wildfires in NJ going back to 1755.
http://www.co.burlington.nj.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/862

The 1936 wildfire.
http://www.bassriverhistory.org/uploads/6/8/7/1/6871754/h-gazette20-_oct_2006.pdf

 

[bobpbx]

That was quite an interesting video on the Bass River fire. We have explored in those woods, and if I recall, went up that river corridor. That is no place to send a big truck like that. Seriously. The poor guys were probably lost once they got in there without a road. Besides, what is one truck on one side going to do in conditions like that? I cannot imagine trying to contain that fire with no winds let alone the winds reported. It would be brutal, hot work with poor visibility and insufficient water anyway.

 

[local vollie]

That was quite an interesting video on the Bass River fire. We have explored in those woods, and if I recall, went up that river corridor. That is no place to send a big truck like that. Seriously. The poor guys were probably lost once they got in there without a road. Besides, what is one truck on one side going to do in conditions like that? I cannot imagine trying to contain that fire with no winds let alone the winds reported. It would be brutal, hot work with poor visibility and insufficient water anyway.

Not quite sure what you were insinuating with your statement that ."is no place to send a big truck like that"..... That truck was built for EXACTLY that purpose. Their assignment was to proceed up the right flank and to join up with a tractor-plow unit already operating there. The terrain was hard ground, and quite easily traversed by this truck. If you listened to the video, you would have heard that their radio antenna had become dismounted/broken, and were not transmitting properly. Further on in the video, they announce backfiring operations had begun AFTER they had lost communication with E-731. It was later learned that the truck had become caught between the main body of fire, and the backfiring operations. As for them being the "only" truck, that also was untrue. Their were several other brush units operating with them, however, there had been an order to exit the woods just prior to the backfiring operations. The other brush units did, in fact, exit, assuming that E-731 had done so also. It was later realized that they had not, and were still in the woods. The end result was a tragedy of 4 brave men losing their lives.

 

[bobpbx]

Not quite sure what you were insinuating with your statement that ."is no place to send a big truck like that"..... That truck was built for EXACTLY that purpose. Their assignment was to proceed up the right flank and to join up with a tractor-plow unit already operating there. The terrain was hard ground, and quite easily traversed by this truck. If you listened to the video, you would have heard that their radio antenna had become dismounted/broken, and were not transmitting properly. Further on in the video, they announce backfiring operations had begun AFTER they had lost communication with E-731. It was later learned that the truck had become caught between the main body of fire, and the backfiring operations. As for them being the "only" truck, that also was untrue. Their were several other brush units operating with them, however, there had been an order to exit the woods just prior to the backfiring operations. The other brush units did, in fact, exit, assuming that E-731 had done so also. It was later realized that they had not, and were still in the woods. The end result was a tragedy of 4 brave men losing their lives.

I stand by what I said. You can't possibly believe that having a big truck go into the path of that hot fire inbetween narrow tree spaces with those shifting winds was a good thing to do. I care about the men who died, that's why I said it. I care about the men we sent into Iraq for the wrong reason too.