Firefighting efforts on Neversink Mountain continued Monday with a focus on perimeter control and security.

“What we’re looking to do is control the perimeter,” said Jeremy Hamilton, incident commander for the forestry division of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, or DCNR.

The division is leading firefighting and cleanup operations, which are expected to continue for several days.

“We want to make sure that with the wind and heat over the next few days, the fire doesn’t get out of the existing footprint,” he said.

Crews also remove hazardous trees that could fall and address other safety hazards to firefighters and the general public.

Hamilton asked people to stay away from the mountain until the fire was declared inactive.

The outlook has improved considerably thanks to the hard work carried out since the a fire broke out Friday evening.

Crews continue to battle wildfires on Neversink Mountain in Berks

Crews worked Friday evening through the weekend and into Monday to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby buildings and causing further damage to public and private land on the mountain, parts of which are in the cantons of Reading, Basse-Alsace and Cumru.

“With the amount of work done over the last few days and with the precipitation overnight, things are starting to look really good there,” Hamilton said.

The fire is still considered an active fire and will be until it is completely contained and considered extinguished, he said.

“And it will probably stay that way even when we no longer have anyone on it,” he added.

A reassessment and better mapping of the affected area Sunday determined that approximately 137 acres of private and public forested land were affected by the fire.

The investigation is ongoing, he said, noting that the cause and location of the fire will not be released until it is concluded.

State protocol requires all wildfires to be treated as active crime scenes until investigations are completed, he noted.

Hamilton could not say how many departments and teams responded. In addition to professional and volunteer groups from across Berks County, reinforcements came from across the state and beyond.

“We have collaborators from as far away as the state of Montana who have come to help us,” he said.

These include a Hotshot Team of elite firefighters from the state Division of Forestry as well as a team of Montana Native Americans, members of the Cherokee Nation, from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The crews brought knowledge, equipment and labor force.

The Native American team relieved the exhausted members of the McKeen County DCNR District 15 Support Team by maintaining fire perimeters on the mountaintop above the bend of the Schuylkill River.

The support team is made up of volunteer firefighters from several companies, all of whom have full-time jobs, said team member Tim Christman. They are reimbursed by the state for lost work time and expenses, he said.

McKeen’s men worked about six hours Sunday after their five-hour drive to Berks. After another six hours on Monday, they took a lunch break before taking the long way home.

Christman said the support team was called last week for a forest fire on Blue Mountain near the Lehigh Water Gap. With that fire now under control, the crew divided available members, sending six to the Huntingdon Pike Fire near Canoe Creek State Park in Blair County and six to the Neversink Fire .

There are approximately six wildfires currently active in the state, according to the Fire, Meteorology and Avalanche Centera non-profit organization that provides real-time interactive maps.

Since July 1, there have been 598 wildfires in Pennsylvania, Hamilton said, and the total number so far this year has reached about 2,000.

“The vast majority are human-made,” he said.

Fire breaks out on Neversink Mountain in Reading; the battle continues (updated)

Although some are the result of arson, they are most often accidental or caused by negligence. Campfires, burning trash and sparks from equipment can all start fires, especially in dry weather, he said.

Hamilton warned the public to heed burning bans despite Sunday’s rain.

“People are starting to burn again because they think it’s okay if it rains, but it hasn’t been enough,” he said, “and it’s going to start drying out again.”

Berks County commissioners have issued a ban on open fires. The measure prohibits burning leaves, grass, twigs, trash, paper, vegetative matter related to land clearing or any sort of debris outdoors, whether in a burn barrel or on the ground.

Violators are liable to summary offence, with escalating fines for repeated offences.

Originally published: November 11, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. EST