TAMAQUA — State Hearth Warden Paul Kennedy was nonetheless onsite monitoring a brush hearth on Schuylkill County’s jap edge Friday afternoon when he was referred to as to a different brush hearth on the county’s western edge.
Again-to-back fires, occurring virtually as if on a schedule, underscored the depth of the present brush hearth season.
Whereas driving from one hearth to the opposite, a couple of 40-mile trek, Kennedy took time to speak in regards to the challenges offered by the upcoming brush hearth season.
“Final yr, we had a really late and unprecedented season, combating brush fires into November,” stated Kennedy, who relies in Llewellyn. “This yr, we’ve an early season, combating brush fires since February.”
To this point, there have been 12 main brush fires this yr,” he stated, “in comparison with two throughout the identical interval final yr.”
Situations are ripe — robust wind gusts, relative humidity within the low 30s and temperatures within the 60s — for brush fires.
“That is prime brush hearth season,” declared Kennedy, who stated rain just isn’t forecast till the top of the week. “We’re anticipating to be busy over the Easter vacation.”
Thankfully, he stated, fast responses of space hearth firms have contained the fires to a couple acres.
American Hose Co. No. 1 was first to answer Friday’s hearth in a mountainous area above Tamaqua’s Dutch Hill residential space.
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Cassie Fritzinger, left, strain washes a hearth hose whereas Elaina Coleman, proper, holds it out at South Ward Hearth Firm in Tamaqua, Friday, April 18, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
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Elaina Coleman works to roll the hearth hose again up into the hearth engine at South Ward Hearth Firm in Tamaqua, (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
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Cassie Fritzinger, left, makes use of a strain washer to scrub off a hose used to struggle a brush hearth whereas Kevin Miller, proper, holds it up at South Ward Hearth Firm in Tamaqua, Friday, April 18, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
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Cassie Fritzinger, left, strain washes a hearth hose whereas Elaina Coleman, proper, holds it out at South Ward Hearth Firm in Tamaqua, Friday, April 18, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
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An intense blaze devouring brush on a steep mountainside rained showers of sparks, one of many responders reported. Flames had been 10 or extra ft excessive.
Embers from the principle hearth spawned a second blaze a brief distance away. For a time it appeared close by energy strains had been at risk, in keeping with dispatches from the Schuylkill County Communications Heart. Authorities positioned a airplane on standby for a water drop.
The hearth was fed by stands of Japanese knotweed, a dense woody plant that burns rapidly, stated Kennedy, a state Division of Conservation and Pure Assets warden.
“It crackles and pops,” he stated. “It feels like a freight practice when it will get going.”
Flying embers from Japanese knotweed fires usually spawn extra “spot” fires close by, Kennedy defined.
Mark Bower, chief of South Ward Hearth Co. No 1 in Tamaqua, stated Friday’s brush hearth was fanned by 25 mph winds.
“It was a fast-moving hearth,” stated Bower, a volunteer DCNR hearth warden.
American Hearth had already “put an excellent damage on the hearth” when South Ward arrived with its wildlands and excessive water rescue truck, Bower stated.
The Weiser District 18 Kind V engine is specifically outfitted for brush fires. Sitting excessive off the bottom, it might entry rugged terrain. It carries a 600-gallon tank and skinny, mild hose that gives the pliability wanted to entry fires in wooded areas.
Firefighter Kevin Miller was greeted by flames and flying ash as he stepped from South Ward’s bush truck.
“It was going sizzling and heavy,” stated Miller, 54, a security supervisor who was responding to his first bush hearth.
Responding to the hearth had been Tamaqua’s East Finish Hearth Co. and corporations from Walker Twp., Tuscarora and New England. Tank vans from close by Lehigh Navigation Coal Firm offered water to firefighters on the scene.
Afterward, as volunteers power-washed hoses at South Ward, Bower expressed due to the volunteers who responded to the hearth.
“We’re blessed,” he stated, “to have individuals which might be prepared to exit into the woods to struggle fires.”
Then, Bower issued this plea to the general public: “Please don’t burn when it’s dry and windy. We’d actually respect that.”
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