With low snow amounts this winter, paired with warmer temperatures and winds, the weather conditions have recently elevated risks of brush fires.

A state forester said that following smart burning, or refraining from burning, can make the difference between a brush fire happening or not.

Jake Novitsky, the fire forester for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Weiser district, said that there were about a dozen brush fires reported on Tuesday as wind gusts, paired with warmer temperatures and dry ground conditions led to perfect fire conditions.

In Carbon County, he said there were at least three fires reported, including in Jim Thorpe, near Summit Hill and East Penn Township. There was also at least one reported in West Penn Township.

The largest burn in the district, he said, was about 9 acres in Dauphin County, but in Carbon County it was about 5 acres.

“The biggest cause of these brush fires that are happening are that people are going out and debris burning, cleaning up the stuff in their yards,” he said. “It’s just they’re not taking into consideration the dry weather. We’re having above average temperatures and we didn’t have rain in a while.”

Because of this, DCNR has elevated the fire risk to very high for the area.

Novitsky said the best thing people can do at this time is to either refrain from burning all together, or if they need to burn, check with their municipality to see if it is allowed. They should also contact the non-emergency 911 number to notify dispatchers that they will be burning, that way, if something happens, emergency responders can respond to the location quicker.

“One big takeaway is that people don’t understand or realize flashy fuels,” he said, noting that Flashy fuels are grasses, leaf litter and smaller surface fuels that dry out quickly and burn quickly.

“They don’t take long to dry out at all. It looks like it is going to rain a little bit Saturday night into Sunday, but even if we get a quarter of an inch of rain ... by 2 or 3 o’clock, if we don’t get more precipitation, all that stuff is ready to burn already.”

In addition, Novitsky stressed the importance of safe burning if you must burn, meaning stay with the fire, use a burn barrel and have a water source and rake handy in case any area around the burn catches fire.

He said that fire can move quickly, citing a recent fire in Hegins where a man was burning rubbish and went inside. The fire crept through the dry leaves and ignited the deck and side of the home.

In the end, the man lost his home, his shed, carport and endangered another residence.

“It could happen in an instant,” he said. “People don’t realize just how fast fire can move, especially on hot, dry, windy days.

“It’s going to be hot, dry and windy today and for the rest of the week and even into next week,” Novitsky added. “It’s not a good day or week to burn.”