SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Wildfire season in New Jersey began on Friday, and forest fire service officials have announced new plans to protect key military installations and communities in the area.
Prescribed burns are a frequent tool used by forest fire fighters to reduce the risk of wildfires spreading. They also use fuel breaks, which are often roads or trails built to create a barrier to prevent fires from advancing.
New Jersey Forest Fire Service Chief Greg McLaughlin said hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding is helping with prescribed burns in strategic locations and two new fuel breaks near Fort Dix and the Warren Grove gunnery in Bass River Township.
"We're also taking into consideration things like firefighter safety," said McLaughlin. "Where an explosive fire event is happening, where can we gain access, where can people escape to, so there's a multitude of goals we're trying to achieve with these projects."
Forest Fire Warden Joe Battersby said another tool is digital modeling and forecasting to see where the risk for new wildfires is high.
"We just added another tool to our tool belt to help guide our decision making, where we want to attack with prescribed fire and where we want to establish these fuel and fire breaks," he said.
The funding was approved by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in DC who see eye to eye on the importance of wildfire management.
