Fire scare at Paul Smiths VIC
By GEOFF HAYWARD
Enterprise Staff Writer
PAUL SMITHS - A grass fire burned less than an acre Friday morning at the Adirondack Park Visitor Interpretive Center.
Mike Brennan, an environmental educator at the VIC, spotted the fire in a forest ecosystem research and demonstration area on the road leading to Jenkins Mountain. He made other staff members aware of the blaze, and they then phoned the fire call in to the Paul Smiths/Gabriels Volunteer Fire Department at 9:58 a.m.
The Paul Smiths/Gabriels department then called in for mutual aid from Saranac Lake, Bloomingdale, Dickinson, Moira and St. Regis Falls fire departments. Saranac Lake, in turn, phoned the Lake Placid department, which remained on standby at the Saranac Lake firehouse.
"It was kind of windy when we first got here, so I figured we'd need help," Brennan said, "and I was right."
Prior to the fire department arriving, Brennan and a few colleagues were the only people on scene, and had no water available.
Brennan also said that a large portion of the fire began to go out by itself when the wind died down between 10 and 10:30 a.m.
Forest ecology demonstration areas, made in the winter of 1999, are each used to show examples of different methods of forestry. Land owners can use these sites to see what varying types of forestry will make their existing land look like without cutting any trees first. The particular areas which sustained most of the fire damage were that of the "Shelterwood Cut," in which 60 percent of the trees had been removed, and the "Clearcut," in which all trees had been removed.
These areas are also used to collect data and conduct surveys. In this particular place, data is being collected on salamanders and the impact deer have on forest growth. The fire occurred near the road which runs through the demonstration, which is not near any data collection points. The areas monitored for studies are further away from the road, as traffic might skew results.
According to Milt Adams, also an environmental educator at the VIC, workers were in the area removing a beaver dam when the fire was spotted.
"It's just by sheer luck that we spotted it," Adams said.
Adams said that there has not been a fire in the area since it has become a visitors center. He said he believed the last fire occurred in the early 1900s, when the area was a golf course.
"There are some salamander studies going on here, but I don't think (the fire) went deep enough for that," Adams said. "It's mostly surface stuff (that was burned) here."
Steve Tucker, a Paul Smiths/Gabriels volunteer fire and Brighton Town Board member, speculated that the fire could have been going on for a day or so at a low level before igniting into a flame that posed a serious problem. The forest rangers and state government will be responsible for deciding whether or not an investigation as to the cause of the fire takes place.
The Paul Smiths/Gabriels department responded to the call with 4 trucks and 18 members, used 4,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire, and returned to service at 1:26 p.m. Three forest rangers were also called in; since the land is owned by the state, the fire was technically the responsibility and jurisdiction of the rangers.
Saranac Lake responded with two trucks, a trailer carrying an all-terrain vehicle, and 18 members, returning to service at 2:15 p.m.
