Although the Neversink Mountain fire is considered 100% contained, conditions in the affected areas remain dangerous.
“It’s still very dangerous,” said Chris Mast, a forest maintenance and fire management specialist with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
The fire, which broke out shortly before midnight on November 8, affected approximately 138 hectares of privately and publicly owned forests in the townships of Reading, Lower Alsace and Cumru.
Mast and three cooperative forest firefighters from the Montana State Forestry Division remained on the mountain Thursday and Friday in an effort to limit safety risks.
They encountered a number of mountain bikers, hikers and the curious on and off the mountain trails, he said.
“Everyone wants to see the burn,” Mast said. “And it is something to see, but it is not safe.”
Instead of asking people to leave, he gives them what he called “a small danger that has been removed.”
Damaged trees pose the greatest danger, Mast said.
Even before the fire, dead trees with rotten trunks and root structures were in danger of falling, he said.
“Now they pose a much greater danger,” he noted.
Damaged live trees also pose a hazard, Mast said.
“All these trees have been weakened by the fire and their root systems have all been affected,” he said. “So you’re going to start getting high winds like this afternoon and what’s forecast for tomorrow, and more will fall.”
Many fire-damaged trees on Neversink have already fallen, he noted, and others were deliberately cut down to protect firefighters as they worked.
Falling trees pose a significant threat to wildland firefighters, Mast said, and dead trees, also called snags, are a leading cause of firefighter deaths on the job.
The same danger applies to anyone who enters the forest during or shortly after a fire.
Uprooted trees and burned stumps also pose dangers, he noted.
“If you get off the trail, there are all these root holes and stump holes,” he said, noting that once large tree stumps had been reduced to equally sized craters by the fire. “There’s a big crater in it now, so if you step in it you could break an ankle.”
Some areas also remain hot and can cause burns if touched, he said.
“I don’t kick people out,” Mast said. ‘I kindly ask them to just leave this alone. There are 400 hectares on the other side of the mountain that you can really enjoy.”
In addition to his role at DCNR’s forestry office, Mast serves as an advisor to Berks Nature.
The nonprofit is the primary organization responsible for the conservation, management and public use of the 900-acre mountain preserve and its trails.
Jeremy Haymaker, Berks Nature’s trails and wildlife manager, said he turns to Mast when it comes to safety concerns after a fire.
The two will work together to determine when it is safe to reopen the trails.
Both are urging people to stay off the trails west of Neversink Mountain Road for the next few weeks.
“That’s a good boundary,” Haymaker said, noting that hikers and mountain bikers can still visit the West End Pavilion, also known as the Witch’s Hat.
It is also safe to use the area known as Klapperthal and the Neversink Railroad route along West Neversink Road in Exeter Township. Users are warned to turn back after reaching the Horseshoe Bend lookout on the Schuylkill River.
“They can come and go via Klapperthal,” he said. “There are all kinds of beautiful things there.”
Visit the Berks Nature website at berksnature.org for updates on trail reopenings.
