Brush fire fighting equipment, tactics evolving with experience: Facing up to an East End crisis

After last month’s brush fires, state, county and local organizations began taking stock of the “new normal” in local forests and wooded areas. One point of consensus is the recognition of how both tactics and equipment have evolved in recent decades to meet the demands of a changing environment and a booming population.

NEW INSECT, NEW PROBLEM

Perhaps the most significant recent change has been the arrival of the southern pine beetle. Native to the southern U.S., the invasive insect has been steadily expanding its range northward. It was first found in Suffolk County in 2014 with the destruction of trees concentrated in Connequot State Park Preserve in Oakdale and Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge in Shirley. From there, the critters have marched steadily east.

“We suspect that as it moved northward, it moved out in New Jersey and onto Long Island sometime in the early 2010s,” said Rob Cole, a New York State forester stationed on Long Island. “Some years we’ve had almost 10,000 acres of damage. In other years, it’s just a couple thousand acres.”

The proliferation has drawn the attention of local and national officials. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin mentioned it in his recent discussion of the agency’s new priorities. Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine hosted a symposium about the insect’s impact at the Suffolk County Community College campus in Riverhead on April 23.

The beetles communicate by releasing what’s known as a pheromone cloud, a powerful blast of scent that lets other beetles know where to find food. This cloud initiates a mass infestation that eventually kills the tree. When pines grow close together, it’s easy for the beetles to move from one food source to another, because the wind doesn’t disperse the cloud.

“The preventative management is we go in and we thin the forest,” said Mr. Cole. “So in an area with maybe thousands of trees, we reduce it by hundreds of trees, and that way there’s more air moving through the stand. The trees are just naturally healthier, because they have more access to more sunlight, water and nutrients. But when a southern pine beetle gets there, it can’t find that pheromone cloud because it’s all blown out and dispersed. And then they never form one of those big spot infestations.”

ENDANGERED SPECIES CURTAILS FOREST THINNING

But the practice of forest thinning to help prevent brush fires has become more complicated due to the presence of the northern long-eared bat, an endangered species that has been discovered using beetle-damaged trees as shelter during the summer.

With new restrictions in place, forests can only be thinned December through February. Rangers cut the trees and put the debris in what are known as slash piles. If this material remains on the ground, it can act as kindling and make fighting a fire in those areas more difficult.

“What they typically do is they drive right to the fire in the woods — what we call direct attack — and spray the water on it. But there may be locations where there’s so much slash there that they can’t push through it,” said Bryan Gallagher, a Shelter Island resident and a New York State forest ranger, who works with local fire departments. “So then they would have to choose an indirect tactic, where they would have to go out to a trail or a road and let the fire come out of that slash pile and come to them. What the forest needs is for that stuff to burn so we can get rid of it.”

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE

Prescribed burns are another method for mitigating the amount of fuel a particular forest has to burn. Mashomack has had two recent prescribed fires. These blazes are strategically set to use up available fuel and are easier to control. They also allow fire personnel to target specific areas. This method actually protects properties in more densely forested areas.

“It’s known as the wildland urban interface. It’s where wildlands and community development … some kind of construction structure has been placed [in proximity to forested lands],” said Jason Smith, stewardship manager for the Central Pine Barrens Commission.  “It’s actually part of the way we kind of prioritize where our burns are occurring. We do tend to burn near communities that would be susceptible to a wildfire, and in so doing, we reduce the fuel loads near those communities.”

NEW TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Among the new tools in the firefighting arsenal are drones. In the town of Riverhead, the police department has drones and operators that the local fire department is also able to utilize.

“The drones are able get a good aerial view, but they also have thermal imaging, so we can see hot spots and things like that to guide the trucks through the woods to where they are,” said Riverhead Chief Fire Marshal Andrew Smith.

Unfortunately, when the drones are in use, fire suppression aircraft are not able to fly due to the risk of collision. This can complicate efforts to control and contain wildfires.

“If we have firefighting resources in the sky dropping water, then we pull our drones in,” Ranger. Gallagher said. “We’re not going to risk lives of airplane and helicopter pilots, because we have a drone in the area.”

Another advancement is smartphones, especially apps that provide precise geographic locations and help navigate new terrain. Access to satellite imaging allows brush truck drivers to move through the woods regardless of the sight conditions.

“Years ago, we didn’t have that capability. But now when you’re driving in the brush, the firefighter can pull up on his phone and kind of orient the driver of where to go and how to get through the woods a little better,” Mr. Gallagher said. “It can also identify paths and things like that.”

Brush trucks are a staple of fighting fires in the Long Island Central Pine Barrens. These sturdy, re-purposed military vehicles are ideally suited for low topography and sandy soils. While the general design of the rig has remained relatively unchanged, departments have added additional caging around the bed of the truck to protect firefighters from falling debris. Some trucks are now also equipped with a small water nozzle on the hood that can be operated from inside the cab.

REVISED PHILOSOPHY

From a preservation and management perspective, Jason Smith sees a major shift in philosophy over the last several decades when it comes to fighting fires on Long Island.

“In the early days of wildfire suppression, the idea was to put it out as quick as possible. Now, we’re starting to understand that putting out every forest fire the moment it happens is not necessarily the right approach,” said Jason Smith. “The use of prescribed fire — coming in before a wildfire kicks off — reduces those fuel loads and protects the communities by creating safe lines to fight the fire.”