Ravena firefighters help contain Jennings Creek wildfire

ORANGE COUNTY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The Jennings Creek wildfire has spread nearly 100 acres further since Saturday, but the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said the fire is still about 88% contained. They also confirmed that although the fire breached a containment line Saturday night, no structures were damaged.

According to the DEC, the fire has burned about 5,304 acres as of Sunday night. It is primarily in Sterling Forest State Park in Orange County. Crews dropped over 60,000 gallons of water onto the hot grounds on Sunday in an ongoing effort to contain the spread. A few local fire stations also joined this effort, including the Ravena Fire Department.

“The whole day we were there it reeked of smoke, every day we were smelling smoke, we saw smoke. But yea nothing we can’t handle," said Ravena Fire Chief Kevin Phillips.

The Ravena Fire Department deployed six firefighters last Wednesday to Greenwood Lake in Orange County. Most of the firefighters said they recalled seeing and smelling heavy smoke over the two days they were there.

“You could smell smoke every day you went down there," said Connor Weidman, a Ravena firefighter. "We were right there. My clothes still smell like smoke from that. Saw a lot of flames even during the night time you could still it the smoke and flames rising up from the mountaintops.”

According to the DEC, the fire spread past the containment line on Saturday, but did not spread past the second line, which was the contingency line. Therefore, no structures were damaged. The DEC provided NEWS10 with a video of one forest ranger discussing his experience with the wildfire so far. Forest Ranger Major Bob Rogers, who is also the incident commander of this fire, said they're not exactly sure how the fire spread past the line.

“What happened yesterday is we had a little bit of slopover, not sure if it got underground and came up on the other side of the line, or the wind, whatever the case may have been, so today we already had the contingency in place to the north end, it was ready to go,” said Rogers.

This was all thanks to crews including Ravena firefighters, who said they spent hours digging a two foot line throughout the ground to stop the spread of the fire.

“We just helped out with fire lines," said Phillips. "We were kind of clearing lands so when the fire did get to the houses it wouldn’t hit it."

Most of the firefighters said they've never responded to a wildfire like this before.

“It’s unbelievable, I can't really explain how dry it is, the trees are dead, the leaves on the ground were dead, it was intense," said Phillips.

“I was thrown into this right after class, I graduated a week ago yesterday," said Weidman.

“It was treacherous because you're walking across the mountain, not up the mountain," said Michael Anderson, a Ravena firefighter. "So you’re stepping on different rocks, different levels of rocks, moving rocks, trying to dig through a lot of debris, dead trees."

Despite these difficulties, the firefighters said they made it through because they worked as a team. While they don't anticipate having to go back down to the fire, each of them said they would.

“It was worth it," said Anderson. "We all worked together, nobody pulled rank, we all went in as a team and came out as a team. And that’s our motto, all in, all out.”

The DEC also said the state of emergency for Orange County has been extended and the voluntary evacuation order will be in place until at least Monday. Stick with NEWS10 for the latest information.