It’s bad enough trying to control wildfires in the extremely dry
conditions McKean and neighboring counties have been facing.
Imagine what it’s like to keep watch over half a million acres.

That’s exactly where Allegheny National Forest officials find
themselves.

The forest – located in McKean, Elk, Warren and Forest counties
– offers some firefighting challenges with its 500,000 acres,
sometimes in remote and isolated locations.

In order to rise to the challenge, the U.S. Forest Service
officials has to use special tools and techniques to battle
wildfires the spark when conditions are arid. National and state
forest officials have expanded their battle strategy to include
land, air and water.

ANF Fire Management Officer Mike Antalosky explained that the
ANF is “heavily roaded” so firefighters are transported via truck
to fires. They then walk in and occasionally use all-terrain
vehicles to get to the fires.

“The ANF has four dedicated fire engines,” Antalosky said.
“These are equipped with 250-gallon water tanks with plumbing and
hoses to deliver the water. The ANF has a boat, but it is not
capable of firefighting. If needed, we would use the boat to
transport firefighters.”

In fighting fires, Antalosky said hand tools such as shovels,
specially made fire rakes and pulaskis are used in creating a strip
of bare earth as a barrier to contain the fire. Hoselays from the
engines deliver water to the firefighters. Pulaskis are ax-like
instruments used to clear brush and trees.

“The water supply is taken from streams, ponds or wherever it is
available,” Antalosky said. “If it is from private land, the land
owner is asked permission. We can pump out of the reservoir if
needed, but we have not done so this year. Some firefighters carry
bladder bags on their backs. Bladder bags are equipped with water
nozzles and can carry up to five gallons of water. Bladder bags are
primarily used to ‘mop-up’ or extinguish hot spots after the fire
has been knocked down using handtools and water from the
engines.”

In addition to the McKean County burn ban in effect Wednesday,
Allegheny National Forest Supervisor Kathleen S. Morse advised
forest visitors Monday that fire danger is extremely high, and
visitors are cautioned to build fires only in fire rings in
developed recreation areas.

The forest is pursuing a fire ban, but approval has not yet been
granted. Meanwhile, visitors must use extreme caution in the
woods.

On the state level, the Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources is flying the spotter planes that have called in a few of
the fires spotted in the area, according to spokesman Terry Brady.
He said this was standard procedure on dry, windy days with high
incidence of fire, and the spotter planes are more common place in
severe dry conditions.

Brady said the spotter planes are a contracted service with a
pilot that flies out of a small field in New York. He said the
pilot flies a designated grid and watches for smoke.

The DCNR manages 2.1 million acres of state forest land.

Trees, however, are not the only things burning. In this area,
there are also gas and oil fires.

Emergency Management Agency Director Steve Nelson said on May 4
that some firefighters have been retrained in fighting oil or gas
fires. Tri-County Fire School offers classes for fighting those
types of fires every now and then. He said for fighting oil fires
of any magnitude, “it’s pretty straight forward. Firefighters use
foam to put them out.”

He said all of the fire departments that he’s aware of in McKean
County have foam in one form or another. He said they also have a
separate kind of foam for petroleum products.

Nelson said if he’s made aware of the fire, he and a hazardous
materials officer will go to the scene and help if needed.

Nelson said to come up with a cause for a lot of the recent
wildfires would be “purely speculation.” He said a lot of oil wells
have storage containers for winter time with heating sources
underneath so the oil does not solidify so it can keep pumping, but
that would not be a factor here in the spring.

“The one that started in Lafayette Township, which was a gas
transmission line, is a mystery to me as much as it is to you,”
Nelson said. “How they start in the middle of nowhere is a mystery
to me. I know in neighborhoods near train tracks, sparks from a
train on the track could start a fire.”

Nelson said there are a multitude of ways for a fire to
start.

“There’s 1,001 different things that could cause it. (Natural)
compost heaps in middle of the woods … get damp and with a little
bit of heat will self-combust. Manure will do that. It will
self-combust and actually ignite themselves. I’ve actually got the
opportunity to see it several years ago. You know, a piece of glass
in the woods, if the sun hits it just right … will magnify an area.
Someone throwing a cigarette outside of a window could start a
fire. Someone walking through the woods, smoking a cigarette, and
not making sure it’s out. Out west, a big concern is that lightning
starts so many of them.”

Nelson said these extremely dry conditions contribute to these
wildfires starting and spreading quickly. He said all it takes is a
small spark or small ember and a slight breeze to start a fire in
these dry conditions. He said people should be extremely cautious
and careful of what they do outside.