Halifax was struck by Hurricane Juan on 29 September 2003 with 100mph winds, with unofficial gusts to 145mph.

Hurricane intensity in northern waters

While hurricanes this far north tend to weaken their cyclonic wind speeds, they gain forward speed. This is a graphic of that effect from the 1938 Hurricane.(1)

We know historically the hurricanes are one of the major disturbances of forests, probably matched in the degree and geographic area only by ice storms.  Other severe disturbances like tornadoes, straight line winds, and microburts tend to affect much smaller geographic areas.

Here a few comments from 1938:

The combination of soggy ground, strong wind and the sail surface of a full complement of leaves proved too much and many shade and forest trees were broken or blown over by the hurricane. … Practically all older stands of white pine east of the Connecticut River were partially or completely destroyed.  Governor Wilbur Cross appointed committees to make recommendations dealing with Forest Fires, Timber Salvage and Forest Rehabilitation.  Austin Hawes, Hurricane Damaged Forests still a valuable state asset

The fire danger from the downed trees was regarded as a great peril.   The New England Forest Emergency Office was created by the U.S. Forest Serivce to coordinate the effort to mitigate the fire danger and salvage the lumber. United States Forest Service.  A pictorial report on the New England forest emergency project with notes on its operation.

The photo below is from the Harvard collection showing an untouched Pisgah Forest (NH) four years after the ’38 Hurricane, compared to salvaged forests in Petersham, MA and was retrieved from this site.  Keep in mind when reading their perspective (against salvage) that Pisgah and even Petersham are fairly high, cool areas that keep their snow covers later in the year then areas further south and east in New England, and at least with Pisgah are fairly isolated from homes and business.

1942 -- Aftermath of Hurricane of 1938

This is a contemporary report, from 70 miles east of Pisgah, in Lee, N.H. of the conditions of 1941 and looking forward to 1942:

FOREST FIRE WARDEN’S REPORT
The 1941 fire season was the worst on record in the State of New Hampshire.

More fires occurred, more 25 area was burned over, greater damage was done to our woodlands, higher losses were sustained in other real property burned and the cost of suppressing fires was greater.

There will, perhaps, never be more ideal conditions for fire than existed in 1941. A scarcity of rain left the forests in a highly inflammable condition. The accompanying high winds spread fires with almost light- ning rapidity through the parched forest lands. These conditions, coupled with human carelessness, made 1941 outstanding in the state’s forest fire record.

As we approach the 1942 fire season, we wonder just what may be in store for us. The woodlands are in as critical condition as they were last year, if not more so. Blown down trees still clutter sizable acreages of our woodland areas ; the increased tempo in lumbering operations due to war demands are each day adding to the fire hazard an ever increasing number of acres of slash land; and we face the coming fire season with greatly reduced personnel, due to the shifting of men from our small communities into the armed forces of the country and into defense industries.

If, however, everyone will be careful, if they will follow the rules and regulations laid out for the use of fire in and around woodlands, much of our difficulties will be eliminated — our fires kept few in number with a consequent saving of expense to town and state. There are so many possibilities for trouble this year it will require the whole-hearted and patriotic cooperation of everyone concerned if we are to avoid serious difficulties.

Persons hostile to the best interests of our country and subnormal individuals affected by the excitement of the times may easily cause tremendous confusion and disruption of local activities by deliberately starting fires in our woodlands. Suspicious circumstances connected with every fire should be made known to the proper authorities. Wardens and Deputies are being instructed this year to investigate all fires carefully. Parties at fault will be held strictly responsible. With our forces weakened, it becomes more necessary for everyone to comply with regulations which have been set up to govern the use of fire in our woodlands.

These are briefly as follows :

1. Secure a permit from your local forest fire warden to burn brush or other debris in or near woodlands, or where fire may be communicated to such lands, once the snow has left the ground. Violation of this requirement makes the responsible party liable.
a. To a fine not to exceed $500.00 or imprisonment of not more than one year or both.
b. To the town for expenses incurred by the warden in attending or extinguishing such fire.
c. For damage to abutting owners if fire runs upon abutters’ property.

2. DON’T drop or throw from any vehicle while same is upon a public highway or private way and DON’T drop, throw or otherwise deposit on or near woodlands any lighted match, cigar, cigarette, live ashes or any other substance liable to cause a fire. Violation of these prohibitions penalizes whoever is found guilty with a fine of not more than $25.00.

3. DON’T fail to promptly notify your local warden of any fires you see.

The 1941 fire record for Lee is as follows : Number of fires 12 Acreage burned 118 Cost of suppression . . . $757.40 No. of permits issued .

FRANK I. CALDWELL, Forest Fire Warden [, Lee, N.H.].
Retrieved 6 May 2009 from here.

Allowing a forest to “naturally” recover, and that’s a difficult word to define in a southern New England landscape where fire from man has played a role since the glaciers retreated, at the very least requires preparation and defense.  A single careless or deliberate spark in a pile of debris like the Pisgah picture above would ignite a long burning, intense fire that’s likely to seriously damage the organic matter in the soil below.  Good and sufficient fire breaks are needed to keep fires from the outside out, and keep intense fires on the inside from escaping.

Which brings us to this picture from Halifax, whih was taken at a fire which started, in the general the area were the big fire started the next day (archive).   These conditions certainly could be found among the worse of the December 2008 ice storm.

29 April 2009 Halifax Fire

That picture probably illustrates two of the keys in dealing with fires in the ice storm area — hoses and helicopters.  I suspect a third part would be bulldozers to quickly re-open forest roads if necessary.  In my town, in the wake of hurricanes or other severe wind events, we will use a front end loader in conjuction with chainsaws to quickly re-open roads for fire apparatus to pass.  On a major fire you may even see a need for dozers to actually build fire line to push dead brush back into the black.

There was another incident out of Halifax that’s good to keep in mind:

House being investigated for arson

…the investigation began after firefighters arrived at the house to battle the rapidly growing wildfire.

Firefighters realized there was a fire inside the house and “they saw stuff that made them believe that this was a suspicious fire,” he said.

“It didn’t take the investigator long to confirm that it was, indeed, suspicious.” Chronicle-Herald

At the 8 second mark events occur quickly — you hear a comment about “getting dark,” then the camera has a partial white out (I assume from rapid fire growth), then the still photographer observes they have fire to their left.  Press reports have stated, per Nova Scotia Forestry, the fire spread hit speeds of 36 meters per minute.  That’s 107 chains per hour, 1.3 miles per hour, or 118′ per minute.  In Connecticut spread rates over 30 chains per hour are considered Very High fire danger days, and over 40 are Extreme.

The above video is  reminiscent to me of this video taken in the New Jersey pine barrens on 16 May 2007 when several New Jersey Forest Fire Service vehicles were involved in a near miss:

I have the above videos archived in case they disappear from YouTube, under videos.

Those videos help fill in the mental picture when you see photos like this one from Cape Cod, which has forests like the pine barrens of New Jersey:

Forest fire on Cape Cod, from Capecodfd.com

Or this AP photograph of an October, 1947 fire crossing Route 1 in Arundel, Maine:

October, 1947 Arundel, ME

When the fire is in the crown like this they can not be fought.  In general the tactic is to leave these to burn and concentrate on handling the fire later when it has left the crown and is just burning the surface and brush, as these boys from Bates College are headed to do in ’47:

Boys from Bates headed to fight fire

At Bates, nearly 300 male students, volunteered for firefighting duty. A state disaster committee dispatched the volunteers to help fight the fires in towns like Bowdoinham, Kennebunk, Cornish and Richmond. Meanwhile, female students conducted watches on campus and at Thorncrag, raked leaves away from residence halls, and collected clothing donations for the Red Cross.

Clicking on the Bates photo will bring you to a page which recounts the tale.  In case it disappears I’ve archived off a couple of the tales here.

Even the brush breakers of southeastern Massachusetts aren’t intended to attack these crown fires directly, but instead to allow them to rapidly access deep into the woods to control the fire while it’s still in the brush and not a crown fire.

Fire storms like those pictured above are not survivable to those caught in the open.  In parts of the U.S. the “fire shelter,” an aluminized tent carried on your belt is common.  Australians tend to use their fire apparatus as shelters, specially equipping them with blinds to keep out the radiant heat from the cab and misting systems to wet the outside of the truck. A flame front like that is also survivable in a properly prepared home, which it doesn’t look like the Halifax homes were, when the occupants are prepared after the flame front has passed to come out and extinguish spot fires around their property.

Halifax, NS 30 April 2009

The statistics, per this CBC article, are:

2,000 acres
8 Homes destroyed;
7 Homes damaged:
450 Homes evacuated;
58 Firefighters(1)
5 Helicopters

Fires like this are not unprecedented in the northeast, however they are much less common then the western or southern U.S. and less common regionally then they were prior to 1955 (2).

In 1947 Maine burned.  The Portland Press Herald has this good remembrance (archive) of the fires.  As part of the reaction to that, the first interstate forest fire compact was established in 1949 — the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission.  This Commission expanded to an international agreement in 1969 when Quebec joined New York and the New England states as members, and later expanded to include New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

While today the states in the northeast can call for national assistance through the National Interagency Fire Center, through NFFPC manpower familiar and equipment appropriate for the typical terrain, fuels, and fire conditions in the northeast are directly available.  For example, member states and provinces have access to Quebec’s fleet of CL-215 and CL-415 water bombers, which are better suited to the regional fire situation then western style aerial tankers.

In 1951 the Commission held a major drill at Great Mountain, Norfolk, Conn., that you can read about here.

While much has changed over the last 60 years to reduce the frequency and size of typical fires, we still have woodlands that will burn ferociously in the right circumstances.

Those circumstances may not even be an extended drought; an ordinary dry periods combined with a major (or series of) forest disturbances can create serious problems.  As mentioned in a number of posts including this one yesterday, much of north-central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire are under the gun starting next year due to the ice storm this past December.  It seems a similar disturbance played a role in Halifax according to a CTV report:

The fire flared up yesterday but was thought to be under control, until winds picked up Thursday afternoon, sparking 15 metre flames that jumped from treetop to treetop.

Officials have yet to pinpoint an exact cause of the fire, but some said an abundance of brush and remnants of downed trees from Hurricane Juan in 2003 gave fuel to the fire.

5-1/2 year old dead fuels!  Hurricane Juan had made landfall at Halifax, with winds clocked at 100mph and estimates upwards of 145mph.  While downed trees in direct contact with the ground I presume would have been well on the way to rotting by now, tree tops and others that where hung up against tree trunks or stacked on top of other fallen trees and thus unable to wick up moisture from the soil would still be in decent shape to burn.

This report from the local newspaper, the Chronicle and Herald,  filed this afternoon provides some more details from the authorities:

Mr. Currie [Halifax Fire & EMS] said “the leftovers from hurricane Juan have been an issue. They’ve been an issue from the start and they still are an issue. It’s very difficult moving in and around this area with all the blow-down.”

Paul Schnurr, a forestry technician with the Department of Natural Resources, said Friday’s “wind conditions are somewhat the same (as the Porters Lake fire).”

“It’s a wind-driven fire, very fast moving, very hard to contain. It certainly moves faster than a lot of people can walk and that makes it very, very difficult.”

Fires can burn big and hot here.  Just this past Wednesday I walked a fire that was of stand killing intensity over about 60 acres back in 2006, something I will write up soon.  While I’ve seen such areas as a tourist in California, I’ve never seen an extended area in New England that had seen such intensity.  It gave me a new appreciation of how bad of shape our forests were in before modern fire suppression was well established and became effective in reducing what had been a common occurrence.  Earlier this month there was the 40 cottages lost at Alton, N.H., and now the Halifax fire.  Southern New England will experience the right circumstances again, and the level of fire activity will shock many people.

Halifax, NS 30 April 2009

(1) I assume this is probably just forestry agency personnel, and more municipal firefighters would’ve been involved.

(2) For reasons left to a future post to explain, 1955 seems to be a good demarcation point to mark when “modern” forest fire protection all came together and gelled into an effective system in New England and it was clear that frequent, major fires were on the decline.  A pioneering fire warden from 1915 would be amazed to see how things had changed by 1955; a fire warden from 1955 would recognize today as essentially the same as his time in organization, strategy, tactics, and tools — albeit tweaked and improved.

The serious bushfire is like a disease that is incubated over many years; good land management is the preventative medicine that ensures the disease does not become a killer epidemic.

To me, the epidemic of recent killer bushfires in Victoria are not an indicator of what is inevitable in the future. To me, they are an indicator of the inevitable consequences of what has happened in the past. To me, these fires toll like bells: they toll for failed leadership, failed governance and failed land management.

1.
The first is political. Put simply, in the last 25 years and when it comes to bushfire management, Australia governments have failed to govern. The focus of politicians has been on getting elected or staying in power, not in providing intelligent, tough and effective governance.  …there is no question that the influence of green activists at Federal, State and Local government levels has resulted in a steep decline in the standard of bushfire management in this country.
…
The situation where a Government fails to govern is, of course, made worse when communities and individuals fail to self-govern. People building houses and choosing to live in the bush also have a personal responsibility – to look after themselves and their neighbours. This responsibility, it seems to me, has also been discouraged by modern governments.
2.
The second explanation is technical. In recent years many Australian bushfire authorities have been seduced by the siren call of technology. This has lured them into a fatal trap. Their assumption is that any fire can be contained so long as they get it early and then have enough hardware to throw at it. This approach arose in the United States in the years after World War 2, and is thus known to Australian land managers as “the American Approach”.

The American Approach is fundamentally flawed. Fifty years of its application in the United States and ten years in Australia has demonstrated that no force of firefighters in the world, indeed the fire-fighting resources of the world could they be marshalled into one place, can stop a crown fire in heavy forest which is generating a jet-stream of spotfires downwind, each spot fire also landing in heavy fuels, and starting new crown fires. The best and the bravest men and women, armed with the most munificent, the most magnificent and the most expensive equipment, is totally overwhelmed.

And suggestions that everything will be OK if only Australians reduce their carbon dioxide emissions is surely an example of kindergarten-level thinking.
…
My fear is that the forces who benefit from the status quo will already be marshalling their resources in its defence. These will include the bushfire Generals who will not want to lose their power and influence, or to see funding going to land management (which they do not control) instead of new helicopters, water bombers and tankers (which they do).

I fear that all-knowing academics from the Fenner School of Environmental Studies at ANU, and members of the Canberra and Melbourne intelligentsia will emerge from their leafy campuses to tell us that actually there is no problem at all…. surely, everyone knows that killer bushfires are simply Mother Nature at work, or the planet’s revenge for our despicable environmentally-unfriendly behaviour.

You can read the 11 page essay here.