Volunteer firefighters from McKean County spent the weekend in
Renovo battling an estimated 1,500-acre blaze in Sproul State
Forest, and a second crew left Monday morning to do the same.

Tim Crissman of the District 15 Wildfire Suppression Crew
explained Monday that he and 10 other men had returned at 4 a.m.
that day from Clinton County.

“The first crew left Saturday morning at 3 a.m.,” Crissman
explained. The crew leaders were Steve Mackey and Whitey Brundage,
and the crew included Crissman, Mike Burgoon, Bob Eliason, Ed
Hayden, Andrew Johnson, Donovan Sevrey, Chris Smith, Jerry Spindler
and Jeff Valerius.

Wayne Winich, information officer with Sproul State Forest
District Office, explained Monday afternoon that the fire was still
blazing, but was contained.

“The fire was contained as of 11 o’clock (Sunday) evening,” he
said.

The fire began Friday afternoon, and the cause is still being
investigated, Winich added.

“Access was one of the complicating factors on this fire,” he
said. “There are only a couple of places you could get in to
it.”

Crissman agreed. “It was very rugged terrain. The most rugged in
Pennsylvania. It doesn’t come any steeper, deeper or rockier.”

Winich said the fire fighting was physically strenuous, adding,
“the steep slopes are leg breakers.”

Crissman said the crews are typically set to work 12-hour
shifts, “but typically doesn’t happen.” All the firefighters arrive
at the same time, and there is a briefing for the crew leaders.
Each group is given an assignment.

“It’s a team effort to achieve one big goal – to put the fire
out,” he said.

Crissman explained there were four divisions on this fire, each
under a division supervisor overseeing four strike teams, who are
fighting the fire.

“They are either constructing or improving fire line, mopping
up, burning out or doing all of those things in one shift,” he
explained. “Those are the control measures used to stop fires.”

The division supervisor keeps track of the progress and
determines how critical it is to keep the crews working past their
12-hour shifts. The fire is considered more critical and a higher
priority if it is heading towards structures, camps, a wilderness
area or valuable trees.

“We worked a 12-hour shift on Saturday,” he said. “(Sunday) we
worked a 16-hour shift because we were on a very high priority part
of the fire.”

Winich said about 150 people were working on the day shifts, and
fewer people worked on night shifts.

He had nothing but praise for the crews from McKean County.

“They were very, very professional. They did their job in
difficult conditions. We are very pleased.

“They take a backseat to no one when it comes to this kind of
work,” Winich said.

While the first McKean County crew was actively fighting the
fire, the second is participating in the “mop up phase,” Winich
said.

They are establishing a ring of 100-300 feet around the outside
of the fire where “everything in that zone is cooled and not likely
to start up again,” he explained.

“They are out there getting stinking black,” he said with a
laugh, referring to the soot left behind from the enormous fire.
“The mop-up work is very dirty. Sometimes you have to get down on
your hands and knees and take off your gloves and feel for hot
spots.”

Currently the conditions in Clinton County are like summer
conditions. Therefore, the fire has burned down into the organic
matter of the soil, and hot spots can spring up as fire.

“Mop-up work can be extremely critical when your conditions are
like this,” he said.

He commended the volunteers willing to assist with all aspects
of wildfires.

“You don’t do this because the pay is good, you do this because
this is something you want to do,” Winich said.

He added with a laugh that the men from the second crew will
need “lots of laundry soap and a good scrub brush” to clean up
after this.

Crissman explained that the District 15 crew became involved in
fighting the blaze when a state Type-3 Incident Management Team
contacted their district office in Coudersport and asked for
assistance.

“They called me, our district leader, and I filled the resource
requirement,” he said.

He explained that crews from other forest district offices
across the state are contacted as well, and send crews to
assist.

Winich said the Type-3 Teams are something new that the Federal
Emergency Management Agency has mandated states to come up with.
Pennsylvania has – and the teams have been deployed three times in
the past two weeks.