Madison Eagle Oct 27, 2024 Updated Oct 29, 2024 

MADISON – A fire that ignited in up to two acres at the Drew Forest was under control Saturday, Oct. 26, according to George Efinger, assistant division warden of Division A in the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.

There wasn’t too much damage to the plants or the forest itself, according to Sara Webb, a member of the Friends of the Drew Forest Steering Committee and professor emerita of environmental science and biology at Drew University.

The fire, whose cause was still under investigation, was reported at about 9:45 a.m. Saturday by Forest Fire Service staff at their tower at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany about six air miles away, Efinger said.

The staff saw a smoke column and reached out to Morris County dispatch saying that there was a fire somewhere around the Florham Park area. Morris County reached out to Florham Park, and the fire was found to have been at the Drew Forest, Efinger said.

The fire was estimated to be about one and a half to two acres and was 100 percent under control, Efinger said at about noon Saturday.

There were no more flames but still a lot of smoke in hotspots where leaves were falling and reburning, and responders were mopping up in these areas, Efinger said.

Responders were improving the line around where the fire was with a bulldozer, then mopping up and putting out all the hotpots in the interior of the bulldozer line so the leaves don’t burn when they fall, Efinger said.

Friends of the Drew Forest member Claire Whitcomb of Madison said during the Monday, Oct. 28 Borough Council meeting that she and her colleagues spent a tense morning trying to figure out what was going on.

“That situation could have been bad,” Whitcomb said. “It’s just an unknown what happens with a wildfire like that, and I’m really thankful to all the firefighters who came.”

Whitcomb said she would like to point out that the Drew Forest has undergone a 15-year restoration, and there were two acres that were choked by Asian wisteria, an invasive species.

The absence of hanging vines and invasive species that had been cleared, meaning that there was not a ladder that went up to the canopy, she said.

“And that forest could have been far worse if we had had a different situation there,” Whitcomb said. “And just raising this as a point that we should think about all our forests, and I know that Summerhill Park is a hot spot for invasives.”

Whitcomb also said saving the health of the Drew Forest has to start in residents’ yards, and invasive plants should not be sold at nurseries even though they are.

“And people need to just understand that they can have a role in protecting Madison’s parks by how they garden at home,” Whitcomb said.