No Homes Lost: How Firefighters Prevented 'Extreme Catastrophe' In Ocean County Wildfire

MANCHESTER, NJ — As fire crews continue to monitor the remaining portions of a wildfire that consumed 3,859 acres of forest in the Pine Barrens, authorities are praising the efforts of firefighters who brought the blaze under control and protected homes.

The fire, which the New Jersey Forest Fire Service has dubbed the Jimmy's Waterhole Fire, was 100 percent contained as of 10 a.m. Thursday, forest fire service officials said in an update.

There were as many as 75 structures threatened and 170 homes evacuated at the height of the fire late Tuesday night into the early hours of Wednesday. Flames were shooting 200 feet high and throwing off showers of embers as it moved northeast from the area of Route 539 toward Lakehurst, said Gregory McLaughlin, chief of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.

"This had high potential to be extremely catastrophic," McLaughlin said Wednesday, because of the proximity to so many homes.

McLaughlin and Trevor Raynor, assistant district firewarden with the state forest fire service, detailed several ways firefighters combated the blaze and prevented it from destroying homes.

One of the key efforts was setting backfires, McLaughlin said. Backfires are set in an area ahead of the direction a fire is moving, to burn off fuel (such as leaves, pine needles and dry underbrush) to slow the progress of a fire.

Backfires were set along Route 70 and along Division Street, the west side of which is all woods. The backfires diverted the head fire — the front edge of the wildfire — and redirected it toward an old cranberry bog, McLaughlin said. Moisture in the bog area helped choke the fire out there, he said.

Firefighters also have been digging fire lines, where they clear the ground to the mineral soil (in this case the sandy soil) to stop progress on the ground by giving the fire nothing to burn.

Those firelines completely surround the fire as of Thursday morning, which is why the state says it is 100 percent contained.

McLaughlin said when the firelines are in place, crews monitor for hot spots and smouldering trees, with the goal of extinguishing them so the trees don't fall across the fireline and spread new embers to start a new blaze.

Some of the crews patrolling the fire area are in trucks that are equipped with cage fronts that allow them to drive through brush as necessary to reach a hotspot and put it out, McLaughlin said.

In addition, McLaughlin said that prescribed burns that were conducted four years ago in part of the area that burned Tuesday and Wednesday helped cut down on the amount of fuel that fed the fire initially.

Prescribed burns are where the forest fire service sets fires under very controlled conditions specifically to reduce the amount of dried underbrush, leaves and pine needles that fuel a wildfire.

"Even though they were four years ago, they helped," McLaughlin said.

Prescribed burns also help the forest fire service limit damage. About 75 percent of the brush fires they encounter each year — New Jersey averages about 1,500 brush fires each year, consuming an average of 7,000 acres of forest, the forest fire service says — are limited to 5 acres or less, McLaughlin said.

Officials also repeatedly praised the efforts of the local volunteer fire companies from Ocean County and Monmouth County whose crews stood guard over homes, particularly along Beckerville Road and Horicon Avenue.

"They were leapfrogging from home to home," McLaughlin said. "That undoubtedly saved a lot of structures."

Manchester Mayor Robert Arace provided a list of the agencies that helped fight the fire, saying, "We greatly appreciate your professionalism, your commitment, your time and your sacrifice. Neighbors helping neighbors."

Radio transmissions during the night Tuesday and early Wednesday demonstrated the coordination among the crews protecting homes and making sure none was overlooked and none was left unguarded, even as crews switched off.

There are no fire hydrants along Beckerville Road. Manchester Police Chief Robert Dolan said the township emergency services has two fire tenders — fire trucks that are water tankers — that provide water for firefighting in those situations. Each truck holds from 3,000 to 6,000 gallons of water, Councilman Joseph Hankins, a longtime firefighter, said.

Dolan said Jackson Township provided an additional tender as a backup.

There was some limited property damage. A billboard on Route 70 was blackened and its messages turned to ash, and fencing along a Lakehurst commercial property parking lot melted.

The Forest Fire Service said Thursday that its crews "will remain at the scene to continue improving containment lines and monitor the area to ensure public safety. Smoke conditions may remain for several hours."

The fire’s cause is under investigation.

The following fire companies and agencies responded to the wildfire, Arace said:

• New Jersey State Forest Fire Service (Unified Scene Command)
• Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Fire Department (Unified Scene Command)
• Whiting Volunteer Fire Company
• Manchester Volunteer Fire Company
• Ridgeway Volunteer Fire Company
• Manchester Township Fire Department
• Manchester Police Department
• Manchester Township EMS
• Manchester Township OEM
• Manchester Township Public Schools
• Lakehurst Volunteer Fire Company
• Whitesville Volunteer Fire Company
• Cassville Volunteer Fire Company
• Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Company 1
• Jackson Mills Volunteer Fire Company
• New Egypt Fire Company
• Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company
• Beach Have Volunteer Fire Company 1
• Toms River Fire Company 1
• Herbertsville Volunteer Fire Company
• Manitou Park Fire Company
• Silverton Fire Company
• Ocean County Fire Coordinators
• Ocean County EMS Coordinators
• Ocean Gate Fire Department
• Lakehurst Police Department
• Plumsted Police Department
• Toms River Police Department
• Ocean County Sheriff's Office
• NJ EMS Task Force
• Jackson Township EMS
• Toms River EMS
• South Toms River EMS
• Beachwood EMS
• Bayville EMS
• Robert Wood Johnson Mobile Health
• Point Beach EMS
• Point Boro EMS
• Lakehurst EMS
• NJ Department of Transportation
• New Jersey State Police Incident Management Team
• Seaside Heights Fire Department
• Pleasant Plains Vol. Fire Department
• Pinewald Pioneer Fire Company
• Bayville Volunteer Fire Company
• Island Heights Volunteer Fire Company
• Wall Township Fire Department
• Howell Fire Department
• Millstone Fire Department
• American Red Cross