Plans shape up to deal with post-storms fire threat
Emergency traffic paths cleared

By Bradford L. Miner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

State Forest Fire Warden David V. Celino checks cleared fire roads yesterday in Brimfield State Forest near the tornado blow-down area.
(T&G Staff/BRADFORD L. MINER)
» Enlarge photo
Four weather disasters in seven months — a tornado, two tropical storms and a late fall snowstorm — has left much of Central Massachusetts looking like one industrial-strength brush pile.

From main highways and back roads throughout the region still sidelined with debris to significantly larger than usual brush piles in backyards, everyone from individuals to state agencies is asking, “What do we do with it?”

And some, like David V. Celino, state forest fire warden for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, are already looking ahead to the threat represented by branches, limbs and whole trees on the ground come spring and the 2012 forest fire season.

At Brimfield State Forest, hardest hit of the DCR properties from the weather events, Mr. Celino this week checked the work done by Mayer Tree Service during the month of September, clearing roads, fire lanes, hiking trails, the day use area and the administrative complex.

Given that unusual weather contributed to an unprecedented amount of fuel on the ground, Mr. Celino said it will be weather this winter and throughout the coming spring that ultimately determines the severity and duration of the forest fire season.

He said he was pleased to see even just a dusting of snow on the ground, saying that dead vegetation on the ground will have had ample time to dry out or “cure,” by March or April, unless it’s been sitting beneath a foot or more of snow for most of the winter.

“The weather has been like a double-edged sword,” he said, citing on one hand the extraordinary amount of damage to the state’s forests, and on the other, the day-to-day wetter than usual weather throughout the fall.

“Fortunately, that has slowed the curing process for all of the fuel on the ground since the tornado,” he said.

The chief fire warden said the monthlong effort by Mayer Tree Service of Essex had improved access to any wildlands fire in the state forest for brush firetrucks and other fire apparatus, but mounting a direct attack on any fire even a hundred yards off any of the fire roads presented a tactical challenge because the better part of a thousand acres was still inaccessible.

“We’re looking at a situation where we might have to rely on an aerial attack, using helicopters, drawing from the closest water source here. Otherwise, we have a fire bulldozer that could be deployed here as well, if necessary,” he said.

According to Peter Church, director of Forest Stewardship for DCR, the tree service cleared the primary roads and unimproved fire lanes, many of the trails, the day use area and the administrative office and garage complex.

Mr. Church said while the DCR was still assessing damage to parks and forests across the state from the subsequent storms, dealing with the tornado damage at Brimfield had been a priority.

The fire warden said even with improved access, speed would be critical, mounting an initial attack, even in the more remote areas, as quickly as possible to control the spread of any fire.

Mr. Celino said many of the state forests and parks, particularly in the Holyoke Range still have blocked roads and trails from the Oct. 29 snowstorm, but that is not as critical as the tornado blow-down areas that have a five-month head start in drying over the limbs and trees brought down by the snowstorm.

“If we have an open winter, with little or no snow cover and warmer than usual temperatures will be problematic, going into brush fire season with drier than usual conditions in the forests and blow-down areas,” he said.

Given that many brush fires each spring originate as out-of-control brush pile fires, Mr. Celino’s advice to homeowners is simple: “Don’t wait.”

He said open burning season begins Jan. 15 and recommended that brush piles be covered until then with a tarp to keep them dry enough to burn.

“The first occasion after the 15th when there’s little or no wind and at least a few inches of snow on the ground, that’s when as much brush as possible should be burned. Waiting until the end of the brush burning season in April is just asking for trouble,” he said.

As a proactive measure, Mr. Celino said between now and the start of brush fire season he and his Forest Fire Control crew would be having training sessions for fire departments in Brimfield, Monson, Sturbridge and Southbridge, and other communities to the west having been hit by the tornado to provide skills in tackling a wildlands fire which would likely be more intense than an average brush fire where the amount of fuel on the ground is much less.

Mr. Church called the amount of storm damage to DCR properties as unprecedented.

Nonetheless, he said, it was immediately apparent there was a public safety component to the blocked roads, fire lanes, and trails, as well as the day use and headquarters areas that would have to be addressed.

Mr. Church said DCR’s safety concern was twofold — a brush fire in central area of the blow-down as well as any fire on the perimeter of the state property that threatened private homes.

“We started in September and cleared all the fire roads, hiking trails, the day use area and the area around the administration building.” He said the work took about a month. The second phase will consider the homes abutting the DCR boundaries and whether establishing a fire break would be necessary to address the amount of fuel on the ground. There are a number of private properties on Dearth Hill Road, that are like pockets within the park, and we’ll be doing an assessment of those sites within the next couple of months to see if more clearing is warranted.

The cost of the Brimfield forest cleanup was $140,000.

He said DCR foresters would do an assessment of the blow-down area to determine if any of it had salvage value to offset the cost to date of the cleanup.

Edward M. Lambert Jr., DCR commissioner said, “DCR is deeply committed to the rehabilitation of its forests and parks following a year of intense weather and extensive damage to these well-loved spaces.”

“That said, following the most recent storm in October, our first concern was assisting cities, towns and locals in removing dangerous downed trees and materials to clear the way for utility and emergency workers to get residents back online and safe in their homes and communities. With that work mostly complete, DCR refocused its staff, equipment and energy on reopening and rehabilitating our parks and forests,” the commissioner said.

Mr. Lambert said agency personnel, hikers and avid outdoors people, shared the public’s eagerness to get back to the parks; but as stewards, DCR had an obligation to be sure it is safe for visitors before we reopen.”

http://www.telegram.com/article/20111210/NEWS/112109881/1101/local

Group wants bids on wood cleanup

By Bradford L. Miner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The Massachusetts Wood Producers Association wants the state to put thousands of acres of forest damaged by the June 1 tornado, the two tropical storms and the Oct. 29 snowstorm up for salvage bid.

Jeff Poirier, president of the group representing loggers, foresters, sawmill operators, firewood dealers and landowners, has asked Richard K. Sullivan Jr., secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, to move beyond the cleanup efforts to date that have focused on public safety.

“The Commonwealth has not responded to its forest stewardship responsibility to salvage forest products or conduct meaningful forest restoration,” Mr. Poirier stated in a letter to the EEA secretary.

Mr. Poirier said the association is concerned that the state’s lack of action increases the risk of forest fires at the same time reducing potential benefits to the local economy and revenue to communities from the Forest Products Trust Fund.

“Thousands of acres of off-road, interior damage remain at a time when impacted cities and towns are most in need of the added revenue salvage operations would bring as well as the cleanup essential for tourist recreational activities,” the letter stated.

Critical of the state’s revised policies on forest management on state land, Mr. Poirier said the forest and woods products industry has been adversely affected by the combination of the poor economy and the state’s moratorium on logging properties managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, including the Quabbin, Ware River and Wachusett watersheds.

“The Massachusetts Wood Producers Association is very concerned that as months pass by without initiating a serious forest restoration effort, the opportunity to salvage forest products economically is decreasing dramatically due to forest insects, diseases, and diminished quality of the timber,” Mr. Poirier said.

He said it was counterproductive for state agencies to pay tree service companies to remove damaged timber when the state could be making money by putting out bids and awarding contracts.

“This is a great opportunity for the public to experience and appreciate the value and skill of our forest-based economy, significantly damaged by the recent turmoil and visioning process,” Mr. Poirier said.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20111210%2FNEWS%2F112109968%2F1101%2Flocal

The Scituate monitors helped thwart the Japanese attempts to bomb the United States with TNT-laden hot-air balloons. To keep track of the silent craft, the Japanese placed radio transmitters on aboard the deadly balloons. But the RID eavesdroppers heard the signals, related the information to Washington and U.S. fighter planes were promptly dispatched to destroy the balloons.

In the entire course of the war, only a few balloons penetrated the electronic screen; one landed harmlessly in Wisconsin, and others drifted off into the Canadian wilderness.

Source (archive)

During World War II, the Federal Communications Commission operated a Radio Intercept facility on Chopmist Hill (a high, broad plain) in Scituate, RI. It was considered the most effective of thirteen such stations. I remember driving through this area as a kid in the 1970s and knowing something weird was done here by the odd phone poles you could still see. I’m not sure if the trees are more mature now or the poles have been taken out, it doesn’t stand out as much today.

For a brief time this location was on a short-list of potential headquarters sites for the United Nations, since it was felt the excellent radio communications and the ability to build an airfield there would be natural complements to being the headquarters. Then the Rockefellers donated the land in the New York City and the rest as they say was history.

A really great write up of managing fire in New England Pine Barrens, archive here.

In addition to those “natural community” issues, few active firefighters have seen truly severe fire conditions in New England.

Although rainfall alone doesn’t dictate fire danger (frequency of rain is likely much more important in New England in keeping fire danger to “high” or below), the following graphs show a very sharp difference between pre-1970 and post-1970 climate. You can get more data for different regions of the New England states here.

I strongly suspect that it is not coincidence that we haven’t had a serious forest fire problem in southern New England since the early 1960s. Before, roughly, 1970 we used to experience a deep drought about every ten years. Nothing since 1970 has matched those 10 year droughts.

Also I’m still researching the frequency rain events. Rain tends to “reset” the fire danger.

Let’s assume a cycle like this; while conjecture it’s not an unreasonable cycle based on my observations over the years:
Day 1: Rain (Low danger)
Day 2: Moderate
Day 3: High
Day 4: High
Day 5: High
Day 6: High
Day 7: Very High
Day 8: Very High
Day 9: Very High
Day 10: Rain (Low)

Now add in one overnight rain:
Day 1: Rain (Low danger)
Day 2: Moderate
Day 3: High
Day 4: High
Day 5: Rain overnight (moderate)
Day 6: Moderate
Day 7: High
Day 8: High
Day 9: High
Day 10: Rain (Low)

Most people wouldn’t notice a major impact from an extra shower or two in April, but it could be having a very large impact on fire danger.

Rhode Island stopped routinely staffing their fire towers around 1990, although some are occasionally staffed by the DEM on the worse fire danger days. Esocheag seems to get no love. This tower was erected in 1938, is 80′ high, and sits at 560′ above sea level. Photos from 2004 and 1990 can be found here. (In those pictures you’ll see a “candy cane” radio tower, that is no longer there. There is a newer tower which is un-painted and I believe shorter. It may have been erected a little further south then the radio tower in the older pictures, too.)

This tower would’ve looked down at a 30,000 acre fire a few miles to it’s north in 1942, and nine years later it would witness an 8,000 acre fire burning just to it’s south.

I do have mixed feelings on fire towers. From a romantic standpoint, I think they’re cool. From an economic standpoint, you would have to have some sharp pencils to show me that they are cost effective. There are some volunteer staffing programs around the nation (see this post), and it makes me wonder if you compromised with the State maintaining the towers and retired (but in good health) volunteers manning them the few critical weeks each year if it would be a reasonable compromise.

When Connecticut discontinued their fire towers in the 1980s they removed them, so at least we don’t have pathetic sights like watching Esocheag rot away. Massachusetts still staffs a number of their towers, with more in a “reserve” status that sees them manned occasionally. When listening to a fire in Dudley last week when the Charlton tower was closed due to lack of staff, the Patrolman from Douglas State Forest went up the Oxford tower to get a third, more accurate line since the towers in Princeton and Mendon were having difficulty pinpointing it and determining if it was a single and not multiple fires.

Bottom line:
15 full-time Patrolmen where given layoff notices.
6 were saved for the year by funding the Federal Stimulus funds.
7 “bumped” themselves into other DCR positions (laying off junior employees in those positions).
2 were laid off.

They have a seasonal force of 54.

This is down from the early 1980s when they had, in addition to 16 Patrolmen, 53 fulltime firefighters who worked both on apparatus and towers as needed, plus 104 seasonal firefighters.

Interesting reply from this T&G Article:

Its 13 fire districts for 13 Wardens and one Chief.In those 13 fire districts they had a total of 16 fire patrolman positions to cover the whole state of Massachusetts.

Only 6 Patrolman positions was saved, 4 in the Southeast down the cape region,1-North Middlesex and 1-Hampshire County on federal grant programs for a year or two .

So actually they lost 10 fire patrolman positions not funded anymore and never could fill the 53-fulltime fire truck & tower positions that was never filled thru the many years when they became vacant from retirement,they just kept on cutting positions of about 53 fulltime fire positions gone already since the 80′s..

They also had back then 104 fire seasonal employees to man all 52 towers to fill in on days off & assisting the engine operators fighting fires ,each district had at least one fulltime tower man so in case the fire tower was needed in the late fall or winter dry season the tower position would be manned.Remember the seasonal tower positions are only staff from April to October,.That leaves out the months of November, December, January, February, March if there is no snow cover and have a dry period of no snow,warm temps,low humidity you could still have fire breaking out and it has happen before past fire history.

Posted by ret.Firefighter | report abuse

And the main article:

By Brian Lee TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
9 comments | Add a comment

Picture

Enlarge photo

Recent significant brush fires after record rainfalls have surprised some people, a state official said.

But all the ingredients, including the aftereffects of the December 2008 ice storm, are in place for such fires, said David Celino, the state’s chief forest fire warden in the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

“It does take the public by surprise, especially when we have open burning through May 1,” Mr. Celino said. “People, coming off the rains with historical flooding, look at the idea of having a fire threat as not there, when in fact it’s easy to get escape fires with this kind of a weather pattern.”

Among the incidents was last week’s 350-acre brushfire on Tekoa Mountain in the western Massachusetts town of Russell. State officials put together a 20-person crew out of the DCR to contain it within two days, Mr. Celino said.

In Central Massachusetts, there was an estimated 55-acre brush fire in Dudley Tuesday. It was in a heavily wooded area between Hayden Pond and Corbin and Baker Pond roads near the Charlton and Oxford lines.

It took about six hours and firefighters from six surrounding towns and the DCR to extinguish the fire, according to Dudley Fire Capt. David J. Konieczny, whose department walked the area Wednesday to make sure it was completely out.

Earlier this month there was a six-acre brush fire on the south scenic face of Mount Pisgah Conservation Area Trail in Northboro.

According to Mr. Celino, in many cases the ice storm increased the volume of tree limbs and branches on the ground, particularly in central and northern Worcester County, into Hampshire and Franklin counties and central and northern Berkshire County at elevations higher than 1,000 feet.

A year later the fuels on the ground have cured in the affected areas, creating the problem, he said.

After a year of curing, and with the recent rains, the area has seen fine fuels such as leaf litter, sticks and twigs become main carriers for some fires, he said.

The rainfalls were followed by dry air from the Arctic region. The low humidity and dew points can essentially dry out in less than a day the light surface fuels, Mr. Celino said.

Add to it southerly warm and dry winds and it makes for high fire danger, he said.

Capt. Konieczny of Dudley said he was impressed that the fire was first seen from a DCR fire observation tower in Princeton, quite a distance from a tower in Charlton that was not staffed at the time.

Mr. Celino said there was good visibility that day.

“The Dudley fire was a great example of how we were able to make the best of what we have,” he said. “The towers were able to locate that fire and then we were able to put state resources on the fire to help get containment.”

However, staffing levels in the towers concern Northboro Fire Chief David M. Durgin, who said he believed it played a factor in the Mount Pisgah fire. He said fire towers in Princeton and Sudbury were not staffed at the time, so they couldn’t see it.

“That’s why the fire ended up being as large as it was, six acres, and no early notification,” he said.

In October, Chief Durgin wrote his local legislators stating his concern about potential DCR staffing levels as a result of budget cuts.

“It’s a case where the state is saving money, but the cities and towns, even if someone had been put in those two towers on overtime that day, it would have been cheaper than the ultimate costs of the number of towns I had to bring in mutual aid to extinguish that fire,” he said.

Mr. Celino said the tower program is his agency’s top priority.

“We know that it’s valuable to the fire service, getting early detection, and so even though we did go through part of a staff reduction plan, we realized that the tower program is a priority,” he said.

Its seasonal roster reflected that concern, as seasonal workers were brought in earlier than usual this year, he said.

There are more than 40 fire towers statewide. Most are staffed by seasonal workers, Mr. Celino said. The agency is employing 54 seasonal workers throughout the state through the first week of October.

During high fire danger days the state can staff about 22 towers, depending on what the shifts are, he said.

“If we can get anywhere from 17 to 22 of those towers up, and those are our key towers, they provide us pretty good coverage across the state,” Mr. Celino said.

The DCR has 13 district fire wardens and six patrolmen who work with towns during fire season, as well as with the seasonal workers, he said.

Last October, 15 patrolmen received layoff notices but only two were laid off. Six jobs were saved with federal stimulus money, and seven went elsewhere in the agency through bargaining rights, Mr. Celino said.

State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said his office has been in touch with the state office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the DCR. They were told that the federal stimulus money that was allotted at the beginning of this season will last for two seasons to keep the towers manned.

“The challenge for the forest fire issue is what happens when the federal stimulus money goes away?” the senator said, adding he hoped that things would get better as the economy improves.

Because some forest fires along the Route 2 corridor are caused by train sparks, he said he would be “more than happy to go after the railroads” for liability.

“If Joe Six-Pack threw a cigarette they’d be going after him, that’s for sure,” Mr. Brewer said.

Patricia A. Correia, fire warden in northern Worcester County, was at a three-acre brush fire Wednesday at Bearsden Conservation Area in Athol. She said its cause was most likely the railroad that runs through the conservation area.

Connecticut‟s State Parks and Forest road infrastructure is amass in deferred maintenance. A 2006 State forest road inventory estimated 305,403 tons of gravel and 37,255 tons of stone were needed to correct existing non-point source pollution concerns. In addition, a March 2008 CT DEP Engineering Unit sufficiency study rated 61% of State parks and forest bridges in either a fair or poor category. The number of forest access roads closed for public safety and environmental concerns continues to rise creating increased logistical difficulties for wildfire suppression and emergency ambulatory response. The Connecticut State Park & Forest Road Rehabilitation Project will significantly reduce non-point source pollution risk and improve watershed ecosystem function by bringing substandard road-stream crossings up to current Army
Corp of Engineer performance standards. Rehabilitated roads will allow for increased forest management thus improved forest health and protection. Timber constructed bridges will utilize renewable construction material contributing to additional indirect forest products industry jobs.

On changes to the forest:

As previously stated, forest cover in Rhode Island increased starting in the early 1800’s as abandoned farms reverted to forest. Continued farm abandonment, repeated clearing of forests for fuel, as well as forest fires kept a variety of age classes dispersed through Rhode Island’s landscape through the 1950’s. Since then, Rhode Island’s forest has matured, with 51 percent now in saw timber size class according to the most recent forest survey. The lack of young forest impacts species that need the unique nesting and feeding habitat that these early successional areas provide

And on preparedness:

13. Does RI have sufficient manpower, money, and resources to prevent or cope with a major forest fire?

The general consensus is that RI does not have the manpower, money, or resources to prevent or cope with a major forest fire.

Some observed problems are:

A. There is not enough manpower and it is perhaps not young enough for forest fire fighting within the rural volunteer fire companies.
B. There is insufficient training.
C. There are not enough vehicles and equipment.
D. Access roads into forests have been gated and allowed to become overgrown and inaccessible.
E. Due to insufficient manpower and funds, fire towers are no longer maintained and manned, except the very few remaining, during the most extreme fire danger periods.
F. There are more homes in or near forestlands and that increases the danger of fire and presents a higher risk of residential property damage, human injury, and loss of life.
G. There is a buildup of fuels on the ground and not all deep woods areas have water holes to supplement tanker trucks.

Some recommended solutions are:

A. More financial, technical, and material support, recruiting, training and equipping of rural
volunteer fire companies from town, State, and federal governments.
B. Development and distribution of a Comprehensive Mutual Aid Plan between volunteer and full-time fire departments, between towns, the State, including the RI National Guard, other states, and federal agencies. Chief David Shaw, of the Pascoag Fire Department, believes that the State Fire Chiefs Association is developing such a statewide plan that, in addition to fire, covers Emergency Medical Services and Hazardous Materials Response.
C. Providing manpower and resources for adequate resource management of private and State forestlands, and perhaps supervised, selective, timbering that could provide funds for forest management, clear fuel buildups, maintain water holes, and clear fire access roads into forests.
D. Creative ideas to keep fire towers open are to lease space on them to cell phone companies to hang their antennas and maintain them, or to rent the towers as overnight camp sights to hikers/campers.
E. Promote the passage of strict forest fire prevention laws, post them throughout forests, and enforce them.
F. Provide major forest fire prevention education, as in the “Smokey Bear” program in schools, through literature distribution, as part of general forestry education seminars, and through the media.
G. Encourage all persons, when traveling near or through forestlands, to carry cell phones and
report any evidence of forest fires immediately.

Checking the DCR’s website today, they are hiring seasonal tower operators in at least Carver and Sandwich, and a seasonal “fire laborer” in Leominister.

Mass. fire officials fuming over wildland staffing cuts
October 22nd, 2009

BOSTON — Fire officials are fuming that high-paid pals of Gov. Deval Patrick have kept their cushy Department of Conservation posts while the agency is axing more than half of the state’s 30 forest firefighters.

The layoff of 17 forest firefighters will leave just one per county and means the state’s 42 fire towers — perches used to spot flare-ups — will go unmanned, officials said.

“It’s going to be a big hit to public safety,” said Trevor Augustino, vice-president of the American Federation of State, County and Municpal Employees Local 2948, which represents the forest firefighters. “They’re cutting with an ax, not a scalpel.”

The Herald reported yesterday that the DCR terminated 91 workers, but kept Patrick’s campaign manager’s sister, Patty Vantine, and two other managers she hired. The three make a combined $251,000 annually.

DCR spokeswoman Lisa Capone said 57 of the terminations were voluntary while 34 were pinkslipped. Of those 91, seven were managers. “Those percentages reflect the proportion of union vs. management throughout the agency,” she said.

Orange Fire Chief Dennis Annear, president of the Massachusetts Forest Fire Council, said the cuts have “destroyed” an effective service that’s been around for 100 years. Annear said the DCR jakes are crucial in rural western Massachusetts where they often lead under-trained volunteers into dangerous blazes.

“We use these individuals to lead a crew,” Annear said. “Some departments don’t have the right protective gear to go out in the woods and they definitely don’t have that expertise.”

Annear said the cuts are particularly painful since the DCR has been aggressively promoting tourism at state parks.

“Tourism is great but somebody’s got to pay to treat these people or go rescue them in the woods,” he said.

Capone said the DCR is “maintaining our commitment to public safety.”

Copyright 2009 Boston Herald Inc.

By Dave Wedge
The Boston Herald

I also found this in the November 11, 2009 DCR Stewardship Council minutes:

Patti Vantine, Director of Administration and Finance informed the Council on/of the following matters:

The magnitude of the current (2010) operating 9c cut was between 4-8%, however the final
requirement for DCR is 5.2%.

Cuts have been saved by mandatory management furlough up to nine days, an unspecific cut,
and an earmark that was removed.

Voluntary layoff and retirements are being wrapped up, and involuntary layoffs are nearing the
end of the bumping process.

A final projection number will be tallied once the full bumping/retirement process is complete.

Our state revenue has slightly increased for October.
o DCR was able to maintain six firefighters, one Warden in each district.
o The overall budget for DCR is $78,348,984 after the 9c budget cuts.
o Environmental Police has taken a $1.5m cut.

(DCR also transferred many of their parkway and bridge assets from the “Emerald Necklace” system around Boston to the newly formed MassDOT … I wonder how that factored into budget cuts if at all? Later on in the minutes it reported 55 DCR employees transferred to MassDOT, but that DCR would still provide snow control for the current budget year.)

A January, 2010 presentation noted that the DCR had seen it’s operating budget cut by 23% from FY2009 to mid-year FY2010. In 18 months it had lost 171 full time positions, including 54 to voluntary layoff / retirements, 37 unfilled positions eliminated, and 29 layoffs.

The Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association is currently seeking individuals for its volunteer Fire Lookout Program. The group works to restore, maintain and staff historic fire lookout towers in the San Gabriel Mountains. Volunteers interpret the natural and cultural history of fire lookouts and the surrounding Forest lands for visitors and help disseminate information on current fire conditions.

Fire lookout towers, one of the primary means by which forest fires were reported in the early 1900s, were closed on the Angeles National Forest in the 1980s. However, Vetter Mountain Lookout, off Highway 2, was reopened by the U.S. Forest Service and Fire Lookout Association in 1998, as part of a historical preservation project. Slide Mountain Lookout, located above Pyramid Lake off Interstate 5, was reopened in 2003.

Despite newer technologies being used by the U.S. Forest Service to detect fires, volunteers at these lookouts continue to practice vigilance and provide a valuable contribution to the conservation of National Forest lands.

Do you have to take a second thought I’d be all over that if (God forbid) I lived in L.A.?

Linking this back to New England, there is an active volunteer fire tower program in southern Maine, operating the towers at Mount Agamenticus, Mount Hope and Ossipee Hill.  Here’s an article from the Press Herald (archive).  Maine closed their state fire tower network in 1991, deciding aircraft were more cost effective.  This year, as covered in this post, they further reduced their aircraft coverage replacing the contractors with the Civil Air Patrol.

New Hampshire was vigorously defending their still state staffed towers in the 2004 Concord Monitor article (archive), but in 2009 they reduced the staffing by laying off the full time fire tower staff and offering them part-time positions to manage the towers on high danger days as detailed here (archive).

In addition to the 16 state towers in New Hampshire, a 17th is municipally manned by a career firefighter from Moultonborough, which in 1987 re-opened a tower the state had closed in 1981.  Ironically, in 1988 Moultonborough had a 316 acre forest fire, the largest in New Hampshire since a 1952 fire in Moultonborough covered 2,500 acres.

Massachusetts has, by far, the largest and most active fire tower system in use in New England.  You can see a nice video here on the Ludlow fire tower (archive).   Although the Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control does not staff all their towers all the time, they have some 43 towers available to staff as local fire conditions dictate.

Rhode Island doesn’t currently use their towers, although at least one is opened up from time to time for open houses (archive).  The others, from a casual observation driving by, are slowly rusting away.  Connecticut has removed all their purpose built forest fire towers, although some facilities (such as the observatory on top of the UConn water tower) that weren’t fire specific remain. While I don’t believe any Vermont towers remain in service, many still stand and unlike those in southern New England are open to the public to climb:
(I do have that archived as VT_Fire_Tower_Hike_WCAX_200806261758015082_3647538.flv in case the video disappears).

Pomfret

Left on this road [Fire Tower Road off of Route 44 in Eastford] to the Pomfret Fire Tower, 1.2m, a steel structure rising 75 feet above the hilltop (alt.822).  From the tower is visible an imposing panaroma of forested hills and valleys, grassy clearings and cultivated fields.

Union
Mt. Ochepetuck is Bald Hill; this area has significantly changed.  The road described may or may not be today’s Bald Hill Road off of Route 190, at the very least Bald Hill Road goes to the summit referred to:

Left on this road, up a steep rocky incline, too rough for motor travel, is Union Tower, 0.5m, maintained by the State, at top of Mt.. Ochepetuck (alt. 1286).  On clear days an excellent view of the country for 200 miles around is obtained from this lookout tower on the highest point of land in the State east of the Connecticut River.

An interesting tidbit was Union, in 1938, was the last town in Connecticut lacking electricity.  I wonder if they had a telephone line to the fire tower?

South Carolina Forestry has this tale on their website:

Beginning around 1930, the Forestry Commission started building a network of telephone lines to link its firetowers with its firefighters. Agency personnel cleared rights-of-way, cut poles, strung wire, and maintained the lines.

Tower operators would spot a fire and dispatch the firefighter by telephone. Some firefighters were even equipped to climb the poles, tap on to the lines, and make reports back from the field.

This may have been the very first telephone service to rural SC; it was certainly the first to much of the state. At its peak, this system consisted of more than 2,000 miles of telephone line. When SCFC changed from telephone dispatch to radio, many of the lines were purchased by local phone companies and co-ops. The last lines were disposed of around 1970.

When the lines were being built, a woman in Greenville County agreed to provide a line right-of-way across her property in exchange for the SCFC’s promise that they would provide her service as long as she lived. She outlived the SCFC’s use of telephones in that area, but the Commission honored their agreement until she died.

Storrs
The Storrs tower needs no description — it is the shelter still on top of one of the water towers at UConn.

Sterling

Right on the gravel road [Sterling Hill Road from Route 14-A], a short distance to the Sterling Fire Tower, a 90-foot lookout visible from the highway.

This tower preceded Ekonk, which appears on the 1943 topographic map of the Oneco quadrant at 670′ elevation about 1-1/2 miles south of this location, which was at 610′.  I presume the new Ekonk tower replaced both the Sterling Fire Tower as well as the Mount Misery Fire Tower in Pachaug State Forest, whose base was at 440′ elevation.  The Ekonk site is now the location of a State Police radio tower that also hosts a number of other agencies from one of the finest radio tower locations to server the New York City to Boston corridor.