Many agree on need to thin pinelands, but disagree on whether to use fire or ax

[GermanG]

I think sometimes we tend to take for granted our knowledge of the region’s fire ecology and history, some of which took years to gain and fully appreciate. Folks who just moved here from other states or parts of this state, especially those in the massive adult communities, don’t buy their homes with that knowledge, and I’m sure the real estate agents don’t play up the fire danger when they sell them their homes. I do feel sorry for them, and don’t blame them or even the developers for building in the risky areas. I blame the government entities that allow building there in the first place.

 

[Teegate]

Quite a few nice posts German!

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

I would certainly praise the forest fire service very much if they could protect me.

I understand what you are saying. I'm sure the service would go out of their way to protect me if they had a chance. But when 19,000 acres went up in one of the hottest and fastest-moving fires ever to hit the pines in 1995, guess who protected Bamber?

Volunteer fire companies from Bamber and the surrounding towns converged on our streets and stood their ground. Lets not forget them, they were heroes that day.

The fire that day in 1995 roared like an out-of-control freight train through Greenwood Forest. It killed everything in its path, right to the tips of pine trees. It went through Webbs Mill Branch and Chamberlin Branch like an Angel of Death, killing many acres of cedar trees in a sizzling, windswept flash. By 4PM a cold front brought steady winds of 50 mph. It went from route 539 near Pasadena to route 532 by Wells Mill in just a couple hours. Neither sophisticated equipment nor manpower could have stopped that fire. Planes? Bulldozers? Brush Trucks? All useless. Backfires did help in the end.

FireTech: it would be interesting if you could dig up any situation reports from that fire.

 

[MartGBC]

Yea that was a very bad fire. It was from Pasadena-Woodmansie Rd by the Trenton Club to 539 and then jumped 539 to the Bamber side. If the winds had shifted it could have just as easy moved north towards Rt 70 and did serious damage to the people in that area.

 

[46er]

I used to own a log cabin in the adirondacks, one of the biggest tinder boxes on the east coast, and kept a case of this stuff. I have seen demonstrations of it and it works. Besides keeping a fire clean property, it might be a good idea for those living in fire prone areas here.

http://www.barricadegel.com/

 

[woodjin]

Folks who just moved here from other states or parts of this state, especially those in the massive adult communities, don’t buy their homes with that knowledge, and I’m sure the real estate agents don’t play up the fire danger when they sell them their homes. I do feel sorry for them, and don’t blame them or even the developers for building in the risky areas. I blame the government entities that allow building there in the first place.

Yeah, I would probably blame the developers also. Just because.

 

[woodjin]

I think sometimes we tend to take for granted our knowledge of the region’s fire ecology and history, some of which took years to gain and fully appreciate. .

I would agree that the general public does. I get the impression that those interested in the ecology of the pine barrens find it's fire related history interesting and don't take it for granted as much.

 

[Ben Ruset]

My opinion came from figuring that building a house in the middle of a forest would be risky for fire, much like building a house too close to water would risk floods.

It seems that people forget that if you're going to live in the Pine Barrens that you're going to be at risk for being caught in a forest fire.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

My opinion came from figuring that building a house in the middle of a forest would be risky for fire, much like building a house too close to water would risk floods.

It seems that people forget that if you're going to live in the Pine Barrens that you're going to be at risk for being caught in a forest fire.

This is very true. As someone who had a house that was flooded a few times by the Delaware river, I can attest that you must accept that you are at risk. It's the price you pay for living where you do.

 

[manumuskin]

pine barrens is a successional vegetation type.if it doesn't burn after a century or so it will revert to an oak barrens and eventually a mesic oak hickory forest in the uplands and a maple gum swamp in the lowlands.if you want the barrens to remain barrens they must burn.wildfires are better then controlled burns but of course their wild and more easily controlled the sooner you jump on them.I don't have a solution to the property issue.People want to live in the barrens but they don't want fire burning up their property.Sometimes you can't have it both ways.I say let the fires burn till they approach houses and then fight like hell to save the houses.The barrens excepting cedar swamps are not good lumber woods anyway so the state isn't losing big bucks by way of lost lumber.I think I'd go with an underground concrete house myself.
Al

 

[mike242424]

I think in todays day and most people forget about earth's natural elements. Nothing is more powerful then mother nature taking its course and whether you live in the woods, the desert, on the side of a mountain or by the water we should take notice and realize where we are what can happen and accept that.