Blitzkrieg in Jersey

New Jersey got a taste of Blitzkrieg this week. A fortnight of hot, unseasonable weather had dried underbrush to tinder. Suddenly, on the wings of a southwest wind, fire literally exploded through pine-thick Ocean County. People fled from their houses as the fiery storm rolled over, returned to find houses and barns turned into blackened shells. In and around Lakewood, nearly 100 houses were destroyed. Through thousands of acres of prime woodland the holocaust swept.

At the height of the blaze a voice from Lakewood's Paul Kimball Hospital reported over the telephone: "The fire is on all sides of us, we are completely surrounded." Luckily the fire streaked on around and past, leaving the hospital unscathed. Soldiers from Fort Dix turned out to save the camp, but could not keep the flames from thousands of acres in the vicinity. Forest fires burst out in other sections of Jersey, destroyed 450 beach homes in New England, swept over sections of Maryland, New York, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. As summer heat held the eastern seaboard, fire fighters scanned the cloudless April sky, prayed for April rains.

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