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In the spring of 1963, conditions conducive to severe forest fires prevailed rather generally throughout the Northeastern States. Scant rainfall, low humidity, and high winds combined to produce high and extreme fire-danger ratings for prolonged periods. On April 20 fire danger reached a peak in several areas. As a result, fast-moving fires of unusual intensity burned out of control.
The New England States were fortunate in escaping really large fires; the largest was approximately 700 acres (283 ha) in northern Maine. However, New England did have many small fires. Massachusetts, for example, had 4,861 forest fires in April, a record for that State and possibly for any State.
Fire disasters made the headlines of many newspapers. In New Jersey, newspapers reported more than 200,000 acres (80,000 ha) burned and 458 buildings destroyed (fig. 1). These reports listed 7 persons dead, many injured, and 2,500 evacuated-of whom 1,000 were left homeless. New York newspapers reported that a brush fire on Staten Island covered 10 square miles (25.9 km2) and destroyed 100 homes. In the suburbs of Philadelphia, and elsewhere in Pennsylvania, homes were threatened by numerous woods fires. Fast-moving fires were reported in Maryland. West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky were also hard pressed to control their many fires. Whether these newspaper statements were correct in all details is probably not very important. But what should be important to foresters and the general public are the reasons for these disasters, the ways of preventing them, and the probability of similar conditions occurring again. The second seems particularly important because on April 20, when most of the damage occurred in southern New Jersey, fire suppression techniques and pre-suppression measures proved woefully inadequate.
Weather Conditions
April 1963 was the driest April on record in New Jersey. Only 0.31 inches (0.79 cm) of rain fell during the first 29 days of the month, and 0.52 inches (1.32 cm) on the 30th.
On 22 days, maximum wind velocities at Trenton were 20 to 40 miles per hour (32-64 km/h). In the 30 days prior to April 20, precipitation deficiency amounted to 3 inches (7.6 cm).
Relative humidity on that day dropped from 50 percent at 6 a.m. to 23 percent at 10 a.m. and remained between 20 and 23 percent...