2nd day of crews from multiple counties fighting large brush fire on Sandy Ridge

CENTRE COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) — UPDATE #2

We continue to follow the second day of a wildfire in Centre County. Dozens of fire companies from around our region and state agencies have assisted local fire crews through Thursday night into Friday, all trying to contain the blaze.

As of Friday afternoon, incident commander Ryan Ling, an assistant district manager for the Moshannon State Forest District, estimates about 30% of the wildfire is contained. But he tells us the current conditions, coupled with an unseasonably warm winter, have not made their jobs easy.

"The lack of snow pack this winter definitely set us up for the potential of a good wildfire season," Ling tells 6 News "When I say good, I mean bad and busy."

"It made the potential that the leaf litter was still lofted because it hadn't been compacted by the snow, and therefore it was more readily available to burn."

The time of fire season each year differs from region to region. Ling says that's springtime and autumn in Pennsylvania.

"When the leaves are off the trees and there's no shading on the forest floor, that's the fire season that we get here," he explains. "It's not the typical fire season like you see on the news for the, you know, western United States in the summer."

This Centre County wildfire is burning within the Sandy Ridge Trail area, roughly between U.S. 322 and the Tyrone Pike. Some officials here, like Timothy Sharpless, say the area does present some challenges.

"It's just limited access due to the terrain and the scrub brush," says Sharpless, the Mountain Top Fire Company chief and a state forest warden. "It burned into it, so we lost access to it quickly."

He tells us they got the initial call just after 4pm on Thursday.

"Sandy Ridge is a pretty notoriously volatile area for wildfire," Ling says. "So, we knew there was definitely some potential there just because of the vegetation, and ... it did unfortunately grow outside of the abilities to control by the initial attack forces."

It has grown to what Ling says is an estimated six or seven hundred acres.

"But it is still growing," he points out, "so we don't have a 100% accurate [number] on the acreage, just because we haven't been able to access all the parts of the fire yet. But we are making good headway today, and I think, as long as the weather cooperates, the crews that we have here should be able to get a pretty good handle on things."

Ling also says, "Bottom line is, we just wanna make sure that everybody's safe and that everybody gets to go home at the end of this."

Sharpless tells us the wildfire is probably going to burn until the rain that's anticipated this weekend. He says he hopes they can contain it Friday, with he and other officials saying that will depend on wind and other conditions.

While Ling notes that most wildfires in Pennsylvania are caused by humans, there's still no word from fire officials as to the cause of the fire, as the Pennsylvania DCNR Forestry Office investigates the matter.

UPDATE #1

Crews from multiple counites have been called to help fight a large brush fire on Sandy Ridge.

Officials with Hope Fire Company say the blaze is located in the area of Sandy Ridge Trail and Ponderosa Drive in Rush Township.

Billows of smoke could be seen from miles away.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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