Two wildfires last week burned parts of Harriman State Park in the lower Hudson Valley. The first wildfire was reported at 4:25 p.m. in the town of Highlands, in Orange County. The second wildfire was reported the same day, only 20 minutes later, in the Rockland County town of Haverstraw.
Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) forest rangers quickly secured a perimeter around the 2.6 acre Rockland County fire, aided by 11 different fire departments. Rangers also constructed a fire line to contain the six-acre fire in Orange County. Both wildfires were fully extinguished by August 10.
On August 7, a wildfire likely started by an unattended campfire burned five acres in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Area, in Essex County. Twelve rangers and four DEC-trained firefighters fought the fire over the course of a week before eventually stamping it out. Burning atop a 300-foot cliff, the fire was difficult to access. New York State Police Aviation had to ferry rangers to a safe landing zone nearby, while other rangers arrived by boat, then hiked three miles to battle the blaze.
It’s been a particularly dry summer, so DEC urges New Yorkers to practice the utmost safety when building campfires. Never leave a campfire unattended; even a small breeze could cause a fire to spread quickly. When putting out campfires, drown them with water and make sure all embers, coals, and sticks are wet. Move any rocks—burning embers might be hiding between or underneath them.
More information about how to reduce the risk of wildfires can be found at https://www.dec.ny.gov/press/125781.html
On August 7, twelve DEC forest rangers helped extinguish a wildfire in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Area, suspected to have started as an unattended campfire before spreading to at least five acres.
The following reports are excerpted from DEC:
On the afternoon of August 8, a 54-year-old Pennsylvania man suffered a concussion after getting ejected from his bike while mountain biking on the Otter Creek Horse Trail in the Lewis County town of Watson. However, the man had no memory of the fall and complained to a ranger only of injuries to his knees and elbows. Others in the man’s group indicated that he’d hit a maple syrup line causing him to be launched from his bike. After the ranger provided first aid and did a spinal assessment on the man, he was transported to an ambulance.
Also in Lewis County, on August 14, a 72-year-old from Owego was severely injured when a horse knocked her to the ground at the South Creek Horse Trails in the Independence River Wild Forest. The injured woman told rangers that she had been walking next to the horse when it reared up and came down on top of her, causing her pain in her chest, neck, back, shoulder, and arm. Rangers called for aviation assistance and packaged the woman into a litter to carry her to an ambulance. She was flown to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for treatment.
On August 13, DEC forest rangers rescued and a 51-year-old hiker who injured her knee on the Lillian Brook trail in Essex County.
On August 13, a 51-year-old Warrensburg woman dislocated her knee while hiking the Lillian Brook Trail in Essex County. When rangers reached the injured hiker, she told them she was a nurse and knew how to get her knee back into place. Then rangers packaged her into a wheeled litter and brought her back to the trailhead, where she sought further medical attention on her own.
On the evening of August 14, a group of hikers consisting of two adults and seven children put out a distress call after reaching the Hunter Mountain Fire Tower too late to make it back to the trailhead before nightfall. They lacked the necessary headlamps, warm clothes, or water, so rangers escorted the group back to the trailhead.
Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post-Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.
