Once again, Long Island’s volunteer firefighters and emergency services have demonstrated courage and professionalism in their response to a massive wildfire in the pine barrens Saturday.
Hundreds of firefighters from about 70 departments from all across the island answered the call, risking their own lives to enter burning woodlands, working together to save lives and property.
It was a massive response to contain a massive wildfire that threatened thousands of acres of preserved pine barrens and the homes and businesses built in and around the woodlands.
This is the beginning of “fire season” here, a time when dry “fuels” in woodlands are at particular risk of ignition, and when low relative humidity and strong winds combine to provide the perfect conditions for rapid fire spread.
The condition of the woodlands are cause for extreme concern. The Southern Pine Beetle infestations have destroyed vast tracts of pine trees, whose dead carcasses add to “fuel load.”
But things were already bad in the Flanders pine barrens, an area comprising 11,000 preserved acres, before the arrival of the Southern Pine Beetle. In the mid-2000s, there was a massive oak tree die-off that left the Flanders woodlands littered with thousands of dead oak trees standing among the pitch pines. Some of them have fallen to the forest floor, creating more fuel for brush fires and creating obstructions for firefighters who need to get into the woods to put fires out.
Watch this video from April 2015 for a look at a brush truck struggling to drive into the Flanders woods to reach a fire:
Government inaction and money spent on more studies has Flanders fire chief incensed
Calls by fire department officials for dead wood to be removed and fire breaks to be cleared of fallen trees went unheeded a decade ago.
Nothing much has been done to alleviate that danger since, according to fire department officials interviewed last month.
The problems are obvious, the solutions are not difficult and the continued failure to act is inexcusable.
Nevertheless, when a wildfire ignites, as it did yesterday, firefighters don’t hesitate to risk their lives, driving brush trucks deep into the burning woods to knock down the flames and control the blaze. Their dedication and courage are awe-inspiring.
We owe them our gratitude.
But we owe them more than gratitude. We owe them action.
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