In May of 1984, a late-season forest fire got started on a warm, dry, and windy day off Reading Avenue in Elwood NJ. I was actually arriving at their newly-built fire station to get a picture of it (their original house burnt out in 1982) when the alarm came in and smoke could be seen from the front ramp. The blaze ripped through more than 1,000 acres of Pine Barrens and became an Atlantic County General Alarm. Unfortunately, no water drops could be made because Downstown Aero Crop Services bi-planes, under contract to NJFFS during fire season, had already been switched back to crop-dusting mode and were busy dusting the local blueberry plantations so it was up to the Fire Wardens and vollie fire companies to sort things out on this Sunday morning. Here comes South Egg Harbor VFC of Galloway Twp. with their 1964 Dodge WM300 Power Wagon brush rig and at least one fireman wearing the unusual red helmets their chaps used in forest fire service. Its a pity this nice truck was repainted in lime a couple of years later. (a Kodacolour 135 print by J. D. Floyd II, Royal Blue Ltd. archives)
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 07:23:06 +0000
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