Pondfield firetower offers glimpse into the past
Olivia Goudy|Herald-Standard
The 81-year-old fire tower in Wharton Township, with more than 100 wooden steps, stands 80 feet in the air.
Olivia Goudy|Herald-Standard
The windmills along the Chestnut Ridge can be seen from the 81-year-old Pondfield fire tower in Wharton Township.
Olivia Goudy|Herald-Standard
Windmills and several communication towers are visible from the 81-year-old Pondfield Fire Tower in Wharton Township.
Thalia Juarez l Herald-Standard
Andrea Hruby of Pittsburgh takes a photo of her granddaughter 5-year-old Madison Hruby at the Forbes State Forest Pondfield Tower open house on Saturday. Hruby says they enjoy bringing their grandkids every year because of the nice drive.
Thalia Juarez | Herald-Standard
3-year-old Tyler Everly interacts with Smokey the Bear at the Forbes State Forest Pondfield Fire Tower open house Sunday afternoon. Tyler’s father says he used to visit as a little boy and has come up for the past 37 years and now brings his son.
Thalia Juarez l Herald-Standard
The Pondfield fire tower built in 1935 stands 80ft above ground near Skyline Drive in Forbes State Forest . Fire inspector Lee Jordan says before radio towers the Pondfield tower was manned by someone during heavy fire seasons. The tower is no longer open but Jordan says there is a posibility of it being open to the public if they aquire the appropriate funds to restore it.
For more than 80 years, the Pondfield Fire Tower has stood high above the oaks and pines that pepper the Chestnut Ridge in Fayette County.
From its location along Skyline Drive at the Pondfield headquarters, just past Laurel Caverns, miles of land are visible. On a clear day, parts of three states — Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — can be seen.
In its day, it served as a lookout for forest deputies as they kept an eye on the wooded areas below for smoke, particularly in the high risk times of fall and spring.
“Historically, that’s how fires were detected in rural areas. There were a lot built in the 1920s and 30s,” said Michael Kern, the Forest Fire Prevention Division Chief with the Bureau of Forestry.
Kern said the towers were built in a triangulation with overlapping coverage so that they could pinpoint and cross reference where a fire was.
Since the 1960s, however, the tower has been unmanned and kept on the Wharton Township grounds for “historical purposes,” according to Lee Jordan, a fire inspector with the Bureau of Forestry.
Over the last several decades, it became more efficient to instead run spotter planes from Latrobe above high risk areas, looking for signs of smoke.
“After WWII, the state moved towards sending small aircraft to spot fires,” said Kern.
“They often fly during high risk times, when it’s very dry with direct sunlight, which is mostly in the spring,” Jordan said.
“There were more fires back in the day — a lot of train fires,” he said, noting that sparks created from the trains moving along the track often ignited wildfires. Since the introduction of equipment and materials to reduce that threat, however, the number of fires has fallen over the last several decades.
That’s not to say, though, that fire towers didn’t play — and don’t still play — an important role, Jordan said.
Jordan said the number of wildfires, which can include forest and brush fires, began to decrease since the inception of fire towers.
“That’s how they spotted the fire up in the Poconos — from a fire tower,” he said, referring to this spring’s brush fire in Monroe and Pike counties that claimed more than 8,000 acres.
Jordan recently visited the northeast Pennsylvania counties to lend his help as a fire investigator. They later determined the cause to be arson, and are still investigating.
According to Jordan, arson makes up about 35 percent of fire origins. Other causes include debris fires, lightning and campfires.
Officials think the April 2016 wildfire in the Quebec Wild Area that consumed nearly 400 acres originated from a cigarette, Jordan said. Because they couldn’t track it back to anyone, the $200,000 is costs to fight the fire will be “eaten by the state,” he added.
The role of fire detection has also changed with expanded population in the state, Kern said.
“It has changed greatly with the prevalence of cell phones,” he said. “Now, 911 centers will get dozens, if not hundreds of calls, about a fire. That’s how most fires are detected and reported now, by citizens.”
Staple in the mountains
The Pondfield tower has been closed to the general public for several years now, though it once was a staple in their annual open house event.
“It was great public relations, especially when we would have Smokey the Bear up here,” Jordan said.
In the 1980s, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) — then known just as the Department of Natural Resources — promoted the use of fire towers for open houses in an effort to reach out to the community and teach the younger generation about fire safety, he said.
“It’s now become a liability.”
Jordan said there is hope, however, that it will one day be restored and used again.
In fact, due to the rising costs of aircraft fuel, operation expenses and contractor insurance, there are plans within the DCNR to replace up to 25 existing fire towers with new structures and man them when needed, Kern said.
A majority of the towers in their plan, however, are not in this part of the state, and do not include the Pondfield tower.
“We’re hoping bids can go out next month for construction so we can start building in the spring of 2017,” said Kern. “The towers would be staffed by DCNR employees or volunteer fire wardens.”
The Pondfield Fire Tower is one of four in Fayette County, with other ones located in Georges, Springfield and Henry Clay townships.