Fort Indiantown Gap enters Fall 2018 prescribed burn season

Fort Indiantown Gap
Courtesy Story

Date: 10.19.2018
Posted: 10.18.2018 08:51
News ID: 296851
FTIG Prescribed Burn: Local Residents May Notice Smoke from the Installation

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. - The installation has begun its fall prescribed burn season to reduce the risk of wildfires at Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County.

The burns will be conducted on approximately 4,000 acres, as conditions permit, Oct. 19 through Nov. 21 between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. Local residents may notice smoke originating from or in the vicinity of the installation while burns are being conducted.

A prescribed burn is a commonly used forestry management technique that reduces the amount of combustible material naturally existing in the wilderness. It is performed only when conditions such as humidity, wind and temperature are ideal for managing fires. Prescribed burns are not conducted unless all required conditions are met.

Fort Indiantown Gap, headquarters to the DMVA and Pennsylvania National Guard, offers more than 17,000 acres and 140 training areas and facilities for year-round training. It balances one of the region’s most ecologically diverse areas with a military mission that annually supports 19,000 Pennsylvania National Guard personnel and more than 130,000 other states’ Guard, military, law enforcement, and civilian personnel each year. It is the only live-fire, maneuver military training facility in Pennsylvania. It is the busiest Army National Guard training center in the nation.

For more information visit the Fort Indiantown Gap website, or follow us on Facebook.

Individuals may also call the installation’s community information line at 717-861-2007 to hear a recorded message with dates and times of community activities and training events.

Fort Indiantown Gap is now enrolled in AlertPA, a mass notification service by CodeRED. Subscribe to get alerts delivered straight to your phone and/or email whenever the installation is conducting prescribed burns or training that may result in increased noise levels. Sign up for AlertPA here, then subscribe to Fort Indiantown Gap community notifications under 'Additional Notifications'. Notification settings may be adjusted as needed at any time.

Media contact: Lt. Col. Angela King-Sweigart, 717-861-6254