A firefighter extinguishes dry grass. A firefighter is fighting a fire in an open area. Rescuer actions against flames. An ecological catastrophe burns a dry field.
Conditions are right for wildfires in Pennsylvania
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Scott LaMar
A firefighter extinguishes dry grass. A firefighter is fighting a fire in an open area. Rescuer actions against flames. An ecological catastrophe burns a dry field.
Airdate: April 12th, 2023
The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning Wednesday for Pennsylvania saying that conditions exist that could lead to forest or woodland fires. Wind, low humidity and dry conditions combine to make it a Red Flag Day.
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources made a similar warning last week and it’s only gotten dryer in much of the state since then.
Joining us on The Spark Wednesday to address the potential for fire was Michael Kern, Chief, of the Division of Fire Protection, Pennsylvania DCNR, Bureau of Forestry, who explained why now is a particularly dangerous time for brush or wildfires,”It’s partially the time of year and partially the weather. The time of year being spring art. The vegetation is still not quite green yet. Some people’s yards are greening up, but there’s a lot of brown out there, especially in the mountains. And as you go into northern Pennsylvania, it’s the spring always arrives a little later as you go north. So, you know, a couple of weeks behind maybe in the northern tier. So it’s it’s still brown so that when that vegetation still dormant, it’s it’s more available to burn once it gets to be green and you know actively growing and and alive. It’s much more difficult to combust that because it’s got a lot of water and moisture in it.”
Kern had some advice on how to prevent fires,”Monitor the weather a little bit. You know, if it’s hot, dry and windy, that’s not a good date burn. If you want to get more, more detailed or scientific about it. We do post the wildfire danger on our our Web page. And, you know, generally, if the fire danger is low, it’s it’s a safer day to burn once you start to get into moderate and high. And, you know, today we’re a very high fire danger across much of the state. It’s it’s really not a safe day to be burning. And we would just really discourage people not to burn on days like today. When you do burn. Trying to clear the flammable material away from where you’re burning it for at least ten feet. You can do that with a rake or a leaf blower or a broom or whatever you have. And then, you know, when you if you do burn and you’ve taken those precautions, have some water on hand, have a rake or a shovel available in case it gets away. And just really stay with your fire till it’s extinguished. Don’t you know, we’ve seen fires where people lit something and then they stayed there a few minutes and then they decided it was time to go inside and watch TV or go run some errands. And that’s that’s just not a good idea, that we’ve seen that quite often, that that’s that’s really a bad decision to walk away from a fire like that. If you’re not there, you can’t you can’t put it out if it escapes or, you know, try to keep it small. So. Just stay with it till it’s extinguished. It’s, you know, once once you light it, it’s it’s your responsibility to put it out.”
