well it'd be easy to forget with the Deluge of rain the state is getting but the 2023 Wildfire season was the most active in New Jersey in over a decade and that posed a problem for the local fire departments burning through their budgets to put the wildfires out well as Raven Santana reports the Murphy Administration is now pitching in more cash to keep up with the rising costs of climate change this year the Garden State has experienced 1032 wildfires which have burned 18 039 Acres again over one thousand wildfires over 18 000 Acres 14 of those fires are considered major wildfires now typically in a in a fire season we'd expect to have three to five major wildfires but again this year we've had 14 major wildfires and we classify our major Wildfire as a fire that burns over a hundred acres a assistant commissioner for the dep state parks forest and historic sites John Cecil says we are no longer in Wildfire season calling it a wildfire year his remarks were made at a ceremony held by the forest fire service which awarded sixth interagency partners for distinguished service during the extraordinary event of wildfires in New Jersey spring 2023.

I had the opportunity this year earlier this season in April to sit in that truck right there with the Incident Commander on the Jimmy's Waterhole fire we spent hours that evening battling that fire I watched as the forest firefighters used the use the water supply in the back of the truck to douse fire as they put backfire on the ground as they move bulldozers around houses to put line in it was dramatic and jarring in many instances because of the flame lengths and conditions and the wind that was spreading that fire the next day I was up north in Passaic County on the canoes fire we walked the fire line and saw the firefighters climbing the mountains fighting fighting that fire both of those incidents made extremely clear to me the challenges that the forest fire service faces along with our cooperating agencies The Challenge is to gain control of the fire to protect property to keep themselves safe and to protect the public during the ceremony at Coyle Fields forest fire service Air Attack Base in Burlington County dep commissioner Sean La Tourette assured Wildfire First Responders that help is on the way the governor and legislature has made have made and announced have made an investment of an additional three million dollars into our forest fire service to help procure the equipment that that we need and we've increased our staffing by an additional six full-time staff which I don't I know may not sound like a lot but in a time of constrained government budgets where flat is the new up six is a lot while Tourette says that funding will be put towards things like new vehicles and more staff we need new aircraft and and new vehicles the forest fire service if you see these vehicles behind me they fabricate these vehicles themselves at their own Auto Body Shop these men and women are the duct tape of state government they can literally do anything and we also saw some staffing increases new full-time employees added to the ranks of the forest fire service in order to support this continuing increase the commissioner says the goal is to continue to fight for more Staffing and resources to control wildfires as they anticipate the high probability of a busy October Fire season in the state frenzy Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana [Music] [Music]