Drought conditions lead to multiple brush fires in Philly, NJ area

EVESHAM TWP., Pa. - New Jersey Forest Fire personnel are keeping a close eye on a neighborhood off Longwood Road in Evesham. 

SkyFOX was over this area Wednesday afternoon as crews were battling a 40 acre wildfire. 

"We had a report from two fire towers, the Medford lookout tower and the Blue Anchor lookout tower reporting smoke in the general vicinity of where we are at right now," said Tom Gerber the Incident Commander/Section Fire Warden of the NJ Forest Fire Service. 

Gerber says the blaze is currently contained but the dry conditions have not been helpful. 

"Makes it difficult to put fire out because it not only wants to burn in the tree tops it wants to go underground and burn in the root system. There’s an organic root system throughout the Pine Barrens and it can be as much as several feet deep, that fire will burn underground and it will pop up maybe twenty yards away," said Gerber. 

These drought conditions have been leading to brush fires popping up in the Philadelphia region, including one this morning in Bucks County off Route 413 in Bristol Township. 

Which is why fire officials say people should be taking the burn bans in the region seriously. 

"Under these conditions safe acts, smoking any type of equipment use in these vegetated areas becomes an unsafe act very quickly," said Gerber.

Fire officials say this will be case until the area receives some substantial rain. 

"It would take upwards of somewhere around a foot of rain spaced out throughout the next coming month or two at least five plus inches would help, it wouldn’t put us out of the drought," said Gerber. 

Crews say they will continue to be out here in Evesham  monitoring until they feel comfortable a blaze won’t reignite.