LEHIGH TWP., Pa. — A fire was intentionally set to burn out fuel for the blaze racing across Blue Mountain, officials said late Sunday night.
It comes after the brush fire, which erupted Saturday near Route 248 in Lehigh Township, scorched around 150 acres and was likely to consume more before it's fully contained, Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure said.
By Monday morning, the blaze was about 28 percent contained, according to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
About 30 state and local fire departments were involved in the operations, officials said.
Assistant Chief Brian Krische of the Lehigh Township Volunteer Fire Company said it was a blaze unlike any other in decades.
"This is the largest fire we've had in 25 years," he said.
Helicopters scooped water from the Lehigh River and dumped it on the burning mountain. There were no reports of injuries or evacuations, officials said.
Around 10 p.m. Sunday, the evening operation was passed off to DCNR State Wildland Crews, the Lehigh Township Volunteer Fire Co. said on social media.
“The fire is moving slowly down the mountain as planned and the backburn secured the southwest area,” the post said.
“In simple terms.... there are crews all around the fire overnight working and will be in structural protection locations into the morning, we will continue to update you in the morning.”
A cause for the fire has not been established.
What is a backburn?
According to the Western Fire Chiefs Association, backburning is a firefighting technique where fire crews use fire to “fight” fire.
These controlled burns are typically set along a man-made or natural firebreak in front of an active fire.
Once all the fuel is burned by the intentionally set fires, the wildfire is no longer able to spread.
The goal of backburning is to create a slow-moving and more controllable fire, and is often used to aid in wildfire mitigation efforts.
“The fire is being drawn to areas that have already burned, so that the fire will be deprived of fuel and extinguish,” Northampton County said on its Facebook page.
“Even after the fire is contained and extinguished, there will be days or weeks of managing flare ups or hot spots,” the post said.
Outlook: Far from done with fire danger
An outlook from the National Interagency Coordination Center puts a large swath of the country, including the Lehigh Valley, at an above normal risk of wildfires this month.
The NICC serves as the focal point for coordinating the mobilization of resources to wildland fires and other incidents throughout the United States.
It comes after the National Weather Service forecast office in Mount Holly, New Jersey, said eight of its nine climate stations set new monthly records for the driest October on record, as well as all-time station records for driest calendar month.
Many of the records broken were from October of 1924 or 1963, which was previously the driest month in the area, the weather service said.
The Allentown area recorded just two-hundredths of an inch of rain (0.02”), marking both its driest October ever and its driest month ever on record. The previous records, respectively, were 0.15” (October 1963 for driest October ever) and 0.09” (May 1964 for driest month ever).
Tom Shortell and Jim Deegan contributed to this report.
