Report of the Forest Commission. 89 



New Jersey. 



(From the New York Tribune, July 17, 1894.) 



The New Jersey Forest Fires.* 



Almost Seven Thousand Acres Burned Over and the Flames Still 



Raging. 



Port Republic, N. J., July 16. — The forest fires in this section are still far 

 from being under control. The flames to-day made as rapid progress as on 

 any day since they started, almost a week ago. All day long in the burning 

 section the flames shot high above the tree tops and dense clouds of blinding 

 smoke rolled away with the strong wind which blew from the east The fire 

 promises now to be the most destructive in the history of South Jersey. The 

 same section has been burned over before, but not so great an area at one time. 

 The shifting wind makes it almost impossible to fight back the flames. When 

 they are stopped in one direction they break out in another. Nothing in the 

 path of the flames is saved except where the people have time to take their 

 goods away. 



The village of Bridgeport, in Burlington county, was in great danger to-day. 

 The fire was making straight for the village, and had burned four houses and 

 a lumber mill belonging to Bartlett Brothers, when a sudden shift of the wind 

 sent the fire fiend off at a tangent to wreak ruin in a section that was thought 

 to be safe, between 6,000 and 7,000 acres of timber land have now been 

 burned over. The wreck in the burned district is complete. Little remains 

 save the burned and blackened trunks of the trees. The needles and cones 

 which were green a few days ago have been killed and dried as they hung on 

 the trees by the fiery breath which precedes the flames. Once dried, they fall 

 off and add to the already too plentiful supply of fuel which incrusts the 

 ground in the shape of pines and needles of other years. The small branches 

 of the living trees are killed and dried of sap and burn on the trunks. 



When the fire has passed a point in the woods it leaves a glowing mass of 

 fire on the earth several inches thick. This continues to burn and smolder 

 for hours, sometimes for a day or more. This is what completes the ruin, for 

 although the limbs of the trees are gone there would be a chance that the 

 trunks would grow again but for this bed of fire. This kills the roots and chars 

 the trees at the ground. The result is the trees never grow again. 



This afternoon, after the fire turned from Bridgeport, it took in the little 

 farm and house of a widow named Lottie Cramers. Everything went and the 

 place is in ashes to-night. 



On Saturday night the people of Egg Harbor and its vicinity were called on 

 to fight back the flames from that place. The church bells ia the village were 

 sound* d as a warning. Several hundred men turned out. They turned the 

 fire aside by back-firing — fought fire with fire — but they may have to do 

 their work all over again within a few hours. When the fire turned to-day it 

 started in the direction of Mullica river, Absecon and Egg Harbor. A heavy 

 rain is about all that can save the loss from the fire from running far into the 

 hundreds of thousands. A conservative estimate on the loss on buildings and 



* The forest fires in New Jersey in 1895 were still more extensive and destructive. 



