Firefighters who battled wildfire in Philipsburg area receive ‘overwhelming’ community support

More than 1,500 acres burned in last week in a wildfire near Philipsburg that started at a slow-moving rate but intensified and quickly spread.

The Mountain Top Fire Company responded to a wildfire at Sandy Ridge Trail and Ponderosa Drive in Rush Township around 4 p.m. Thursday. At the time, about one acre was burning, according to a Facebook post by the Mountain Top Fire Company.

Once units from the Mountain Top Fire Company, including a brush apparatus and UTV, were at the scene, they began searching for the “deep seated fire.” Chief 13-3, Ben Bush, also requested units from the Hope Fire Company, all of whom had previously been dispatched to the fire at the Route 322 end, according to the post.

After about 15 minutes of searching, the fire was located approximately 1.2 miles into the woods off of the Sandy Ridge Trail, which is a Game Commission road. Roughly three to four acres were burning “at a slow moving rate,” according to the Facebook post. Chief 13, Tim Sharpless, arrived on scene and assumed command while Bush assumed operations. Units from the Hope Fire Company also arrived.

Sharpless said they were initially able to access the edge of the fire and made progress on suppressing it. But firefighters started running out of water and had to go back to refill, Sharpless said Monday during a phone interview.

“Units had initially made progress in fire suppression until we ran out of water and had to make our way back to the trail to refill. At this time the winds had started to pick up and change directions which intensified the fire causing 30 ft flames at times and the fire began to spread quickly at a rate where we could not keep up,” a Facebook post states.

It was deemed unsafe and all units evacuated the woods and additional units were summoned, including those from Clearfield and Blair counties. Sharpless said the crews regrouped and got into different positions, but access was difficult. The Game Commission had three bulldozers there and were able to start dozing lines to give the firefighters access.

“But most of the fire then burned into remote access that was only accessible by the UTVs and ground crews,” Sharpless said. Two planes were also used to drop fire retardant, but it was unable to smother the fire because of the thick brush, the post states, and the fire “kept jumping the dozer lines.”

Multiple state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources forestry units, Pennsylvania Game Commission units and DCNR support teams were called to help contain the fire. The Mountain Top Fire Company operated from Thursday afternoon into late Friday night until the fire was considered contained.

“Containment was possible from the hard and laborious work our local fire companies, DCNR, PGC, and the support teams had put in,” the post states. The fire company also had 13 volunteers help throughout those 25 hours and its ambulance had four personnel on duty during that time.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Sharpless said.

‘Overwhelming’ support for firefighters

Several local businesses provided food and drinks for those responding to the fire, including HiWay Pizza, Pizza Hut in Philipsburg, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Nittany MinitMart, the Philipsburg American Legion, SARTASK, Sheetz, DuBois Salvation Army Canteen Unit, Texas Roadhouse in State College and Grahams Up in Smoke BBQ, the post states.

“It was overwhelming. I mean, normally you’re trying to struggle to find food to feed the people. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army usually do a pretty good job of doing that. But at least for Friday night, it was overwhelming with the different pizza places and then, as it continued on, a lot of different businesses did step up. The Salvation Army did come in and that was a big help. But it saved a lot of effort trying to track down food to feed everybody,” Sharpless said. Community members also donated cases of water.

Volunteer firefighters from three counties responded to the fire, including Mountain Top Fire Company, Mountain Top Fire Co. Ambulance Service, Hope Fire Company, Reliance Fire Company, Port Matilda Fire Co. 15 and Moshannon Valley EMS in Centre County, Columbia Volunteer Fire Company, Chester Hill Hose Company, Houtzdale Fire Company No. 1, Ramey Fire Company, Madera Fire Co., Karthaus Vol. Fire Co., Winburne Fire Company Number One, Grassflat Volunteer Fire Company, Hyde Fire Department and Lawrence Township Volunteer Fire Company #1 from Clearfield County, and Bald Eagle Volunteer Fire Company, Hookies Fire Company and Neptune Fire Company from Blair County.

“Everybody gave it their all. … I know our own fire company, we had 25 hours in two days and a lot of the other resources were out there a lot, as well. So everybody gave it all they could,” he said.

There were two injuries; one was heat related and that person refused treatment, and one firefighter was transported for chest pain, Sharpless said.

The DCNR Moshannon District and Game Commission had controlled burns in other places that were just finished, so they reallocated those resources to help with the fire in Rush Township, Sharpless said.

Sharpless said they left around 10:30 p.m. Friday and the forestry department called in a number of crews from around the state to help. He expects stumps and other debris to continue burning until the area gets a couple days of rain.

He recalled a forest fire in November that burned about 600 acres of a different track of game lanes, but because it had nearby roads, it was a little easier to deal with.

“This one burned into a remote area with no access other than what was bulldozed into it. So, I mean, over the 40 some years I’ve been doing it, we had one in probably the ‘90s that was 600 or 700 acres, I think, in most of the same area. But yeah, … that’s definitely abnormal for us to go several days,” he said.