By PETE BOSAK
State College Centre Daily Times (Pennsylvania)
HARRIS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Firefighters are in mop-up and containment mode on the inferno that burned 436 acres of forest and brush in the Rothrock State Forest area near Tussey Mountain — the largest such fire in Centre County in more than a decade.
“It’s the worst in recent memory,” said Dan LeCrone, forest fire specialist supervisor with state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which took over command of the scene at noon Tuesday.
The wildfire that began burning on a ridge behind Tussey Mountain Ski Resort Monday afternoon, sending smoke and ash billowing over State College, was contained early Tuesday morning. About 30 firefighters remained on the scene throughout Tuesday and into this morning to ensure that flames did not rekindle.
That happened at 4:45 Tuesday afternoon, when the fire “broke out of its containment line,” on the northeast side of the charred acreage, said DCNR spokeswoman Tina Alban.
Aircraft and the Boalsburg Fire Company were recalled to help crews already on scene.
By 6 p.m., firefighters regained control of the blaze, which took another acre or two of forest.
There is still a large amount of mountain laurel in the area that did not burn, but was killed and dried to a point where it could easily ignite, LeCrone said.
“With the re-burn potential on the mountain laurel, we need to keep it within the containment lines,” LeCrone said. “It’s going to take a few days to mop this thing up.”
The fire, which began about 1 p.m. Monday, may have been sparked by a downed power line, an Allegheny Power spokesman said. No official determination of the cause had been made Tuesday.
Firefighters, perhaps numbering 200, worked furiously into Monday night battling the fire on the ridge behind the ski resort. Fed by 45 mph winds, flames were reported at times to be shooting 80 to 100 feet into the air.
“It’s one that’s going to be memorable, I’ll say that,” said Boalsburg Assistant Fire Chief Marlin Neff, who was the incident commander. “It was huge.”
This fire is the worst since nearly 10,000 acres burned near Snow Shoe more than a decade ago, LeCrone said. A fire a month ago near Sandy Ridge claimed about 300 acres, he said.
No firefighters were injured battling the blaze which, at one point, crept within about 15 feet of a cabin, Neff said. Firefighters got there in time to save the building, he said.
Until there are some steady, soaking rains, brush fires will be a threat, officials said.
“It’s just been a dry winter and a dry spring,” LeCrone said. “So the potential is there. It’s just that things are drier this time of year than they should be.”
In light of the dry conditions, Chris Exarchos, chairman of the Centre County Board of Commissioners, urged county residents to use caution.
“I would ask people to be prudent with any outdoor flames until we get some rain,” Exarchos said Tuesday.
He said a ban on burning would not prevent accidents, and would only be enforceable if it came at the request of fire chiefs and was backed by DCNR.
“Whether we have an official ban or not is not as crucial as people using their heads and being smart and knowing that we have extremely dry conditions out there,” Exarchos said.
As ash settled on her open windowsill and smoke wafted into her office Monday, Romayne Naylor, emergency services director of the Centre Communities Chapter of the American Red Cross, made calls for volunteers and donations of food and water.
Within a short time she had a volunteer crew of five on stand-by, and calls were being made to local restaurants and shops. Naylor said local businesses, including Subway, Eat’n Park and Sheetz, donated items including sandwiches and hot chocolate for weary firefighters, while local grocery stores offered needed supplies such as water and ice.