“It runs rampant.” Drought conditions causing increased brush fire risk

RESERVE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Firefighters in western Pennsylvania are urging residents to avoid burning outdoors due to an elevated risk of brush fires. A combination of dry air and very dry brush is creating an increased risk of wildfire spread.

“When you have these heavy drought conditions it runs rampant,” said South Strabane Assistant Fire Chief Paul Winter.

Winter said his department has responded to multiple brush fires recently.

“We’ve been having a lot of high volume calls with brush fires turning into wildland fires,” he said. “We’ve had wind-driven conditions so any small embers can easily travel and can consume large properties of land. It can spread 30-40 feet in seconds.”

He said these fires can become extremely dangerous for crews to extinguish.

“We run a lot of risk. The fire can easily jump and spread around you. Your resources are stretched thin trying to get water and personnel into the areas depending on location can get rather difficult.”

On Friday, one of his firefighters was hit by a falling tree while working a brush fire in Amwell Township. That firefighter was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital, and released Saturday morning.

Winter said it takes multiple departments and resources to fight these fires, and many of these departments are volunteer based or stretched thin to begin with.

“The biggest thing we ask is for community support,” he said. “Not only for not burning but to also help support their local fire departments because without their support we can not continue.”

He said although rain is in the forecast for Sunday, it doesn’t mean the drought conditions will improve.

“We advise people to please stop burning trash,” he said. “Stop burning brush. Don’t even have a small contained brush fire because once an ember gets into leaves or brush it’s going to spread very fast.”

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