PORTER TOWNSHIP - Crews went door-to-door Sunday evacuating primarily seasonal cabins in the path of a massive brush fire burning in the Pine Flats section of Delaware State Forest in Pike County since Wednesday.

Three homes and one cabin have been destroyed already, said Robert Martynowych, a forester in neighboring Weiser Forest District, who is assisting in the effort. No residents or fire crew members have been injured."It's one of the worst fires I've seen in my nearly 20 years with the state," Martynowych said.The Sixteen-Mile fire, named after a region in the forest, has already burned 5,600 acres of land, and officials closed a portion of the forest to the public. Another nearby brush fire, called the Bear Town fire, which was burning on mostly private land, has been contained and damaged 700 acres, he said.Martynowych said everyone heeded the evacuation, but one resident didn't have a place to go and was given accommodations by Pike County officials.Crews from the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry are battling the blaze, along with local crews, including Hemlock Farms in Pike County and out-of-state crews from Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey and a Smokey Bear Hotshots crew, a high-level forest firefighting team from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service based in New Mexico.Martynowych said 160 firefighters were battling the blaze on Sunday. Members of the team work 16 hours, then sleep eight, he said.He said the blaze was intentionally set in the Sixteen Mile Run area on Wednesday and the department is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading the arrest and conviction of a person or people responsible for either of the two fires.Elsewhere, firefighters from the Community Fire Company of New Tripoli are engaged in battling several brush fires along Route 309 on the south side of the Blue Mountain in Lynn Township.A perfect storm from Mother Nature is keeping the Pike County fire burning and making it hard to control, Martynowych said. Nearly 50 percent of the trees in the forest are dead because of gypsy moth infestations over the past few years. That, combined with dry, windy conditions with low humidity, make the forest a tinderbox . Also, because most trees haven't sprouted leaves yet, when precipitation falls, it is quickly evaporated by the sun the next day.Tall burning trees are throwing embers across fire control lines, making firefighting extremely dangerous.Martynowych said equipment such as a feller/buncher, which cuts and bunches trees, often used in the logging industry, is helpful because the operator is in a cab protected from falling, flaming limbs. Helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes are being used to drop water.District forest manager Timothy Dugan decided to close a portion of the forest to the public. The area bounded by Route 402, Highline Road, Pine Flats Road and Hobday Road is closed until further notice. In a news release he said visitors to other portions of the forest should use "caution and discretion."Pike County issued a ban on open burning on Sunday.The Delaware State Forest totals 83,519 acres in Pike, Monroe, Northampton and Carbon counties.