Eyes in the sky: How N.J.'s remaining fire towers spot blazes first

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ericsanjuan

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Dec 1, 2011
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Great story! I didn't realize these towers remained so prevalent. When I was writing my book on Lakehurst I spoke to an old journalist named Marshall Sewell. Terrific guy. I'm not sure if he's still with us -- he'd be 95 now -- but I hope he is.

He shared some stories from his days as a journalist in northern Ocean County related to stories like these. Here is one of them:



It's an early morning in the late 1930s. Erv Clement, division fire warden, leaves his home in Crestwood and makes for the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. There, he climbs the stairs to the top of Hangar No. 1. It is the peak of the fire season and this was the best way to survey the area. A train had just passed through the area, spewing smoke and belching fire. Now is a time of great risk.

Sure enough, there is smoke in the woods.

“We’ve got a burn going just south of Whitings,” Clement would tell Marshall Sewell, then a reporter for the Lakewood Daily Times. “The 10:48 out of Lakehurst just went through.”

It was not an uncommon occurrence. When the trains would pass through the pines, especially during April and May, “the steam locomotives would shower sparks on the right-of-way, even though their smokestacks had screens that were supposed to have prevented this,” Sewell recalled.

So for the area’s local reporter, it was off to cover the fire.
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