Fire is Currently Approximately 160 Acres

State Forest Rangers Continue Leading Multi-Agency Incident Command of State and Local Partners, National Guard; 20 Quebec Firefighters Arriving Today

Governor Hochul: "The strategy is to encompass and circulate this with a wall, so they cannot spread to our more vulnerable areas here ... We don't expect it to be able to threaten any life or structures, but we take it very serious."

Hochul: "There are things out of our control. That is why we're going to be vigilant. We're not going to stop our presence, making sure we have all the resources and the man and womanpower necessary to contain this fire and to be ready for the next major climate-driven event."

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul provided an update on the coordinated effort to contain the Napanoch Point wildland fire burning in Minnewaska State Park Preserve. With the State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers leading the incident response in cooperation with the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, New York State Police, Ulster County, and many other State and local partners, the Governor recently deployed additional State assets including personnel and Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. Twenty firefighters from Quebec arrived in New York today to support the response. Currently more than 200 firefighters, bulldozer operators, pilots, and other professional staff and volunteers are working to contain the fire that is currently estimated at 160 acres in size.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format. AUDIO of the event is available. PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page. Click Here

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Governor Kathy Hochul. This is an international response. I'm delighted to welcome our friends from Quebec who have come down to lend a helping hand. And this is an extraordinary circumstance particularly this time of year, and we'll give you much more detail when I have a chance to introduce the people who have been on the ground since the first lightning strike on Saturday. And you'll hear much more about what we're dealing with in a matter of minutes.

To County Executive, Pat Ryan, all I can say is, what's with your county, Mr. County Executive? I swear I spent every winter weekend here with the two of us dealing with the ice storm, the power outages, the tree limbs down. And every Saturday I woke up, my husband said, "Let me guess, you're going back to Ulster County." But you have an extraordinary team. They're obviously experienced in disaster management and crisis management, as are you. So, thank you to Pat Ryan, who you'll be hearing from momentarily.

Jackie Bray, the Commissioner of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, who has been dealing with everything over this last year from Ida, a hurricane that happened one year ago, I'll be mentioning in a moment, to the ice storms, to dealing with the COVID response — the Omicron response. It requires a steady hand and an experienced individual, and that is our Commissioner, Jackie Bray. So, thank you for being with us again.

Basil Seggos has been around the block a few times. He's seen it all. He's a true friend to the state as well as an extraordinary career in public service, but we are so blessed to have him as the Commissioner of DEC. And he has really been running operations here on the ground for us since the inception.

Erik Kulleseid, the Commissioner of our Parks. It is heartbreaking for him to see what's happening in his beloved state park. The loss of every single tree is the loss of a life, part of the identity of this beautiful state, so I know this is hard for you and your team, but they're extraordinary. They're committed individuals, so I want to thank him as well.

Robby Mecus is here. The Incident Commander of the New York State Forest Rangers has joined us. And thank you for being on the ground, Robby, for this entire process. It's not what anybody expected. People may have had a lot of plans heading into the holiday weekend disrupted, but you're all here. You're here because your state needs you and we're grateful for that service.

And Jim Cable, the State Fire Administrator, again, to you and your team, I'm grateful for everyone who is here as we're continuing to track a fire that has been burning in Minnewaska State Park Preserve. We're going to give an update.

The range of the fire vacillates. I flew over Monday as I was heading down to the city, I took a detour and at that time it was 75 acres on Monday. It's gone up as high as 270, scales back, goes up. And so, you'll get more description on the life of a fire, but that's what's going on. But clearly the fire has been moving quickly. Tuesday night's rainstorm was somewhat helpful. We appreciated that Mother Nature, but we need some. These are extremely dry times, and we talk as we talk about, this is very rare. This is a rarity because normally we have the dryness, the dry conditions that are very challenging. That usually happens much earlier in the summer. So to have this going on this time of year is another one of those signs out there that this is not normal. On the other hand, we ask ourselves, what is normal anymore in this era of dramatic climate change events that have been consuming us for years now, but particularly with a heightened intensity, given just even what we've endured over the last year.

So, the reality is we've got about 20 percent of the fire contained. It's difficult because of the tough terrain, the steepness of where it is. We have a map here. I can show you what I know. Don't have microphone to go over there. This red part is where the fire is right now. What we're building here are called dozer lines, right? Fire breaks. You take a bulldozer - thank you to other agencies, I'll get to them a second. And you build a 14 foot swap here to stop the fire from spreading. That's what we're trying to do. We want to actually encompass this. Ultimately, where we have some real challenges is the peak clips. These are ridges. So, it's very challenging for the men and women on the ground to reverse those in normal vehicles, bulldozers. So, this literally, these dots here, this is done by hand. This is over 150 people on the ground, cutting through the trees by hand. It's dangerous work it's really work, and that's what they have to do because of the steepness of the terrain here, but another dozer line.

And so, the strategy is to encompass and circulate this with a wall, so they cannot spread to our more vulnerable areas here, such as Ellenville and where a prison is. We don't expect that to happen, but this why we're taking these steps at this time. So to contain this, again, the DEC predicts it, ultimately it will burn itself out. It may take a week. It may take two weeks, but we don't expect it to be able to threaten any life or structures, but we take it very serious. And since it began, there's been an incredibly coordinated effort. I want to thank - I know the County Executive will thank all the individuals from Ulster County who've on the ground, our sheriffs, our first responders, so he'll acknowledge them. But I also want to thank the National Guard, State Police, Parks Department, our Homeland Security Emergency Services, DEC, DOT Thruway, Canals, and other agencies that have really stepped up. And we've activated the Fire Operations Center. We have all the local fire companies, god bless you. Thank you for the volunteers who step forth on days like this, weeks like this. So, we have over 200 personnel because I mentioned battling the blaze. And I want to mention the fire companies from Ulster, Dutchess, Greene Counties, as well as the New York State Forest Rangers and the National Guard. And again, a special welcome to our guests from Quebec. 20 experienced Canadian firefighters, and I just want to acknowledge their presence here today. Wearing the beautiful red, so thank you. Thank you. Now they got here, they're heading right up. And special thank you.

Also, our State Police, we had, how are we dealing with this? Where's the water come from? I flew overhead just a few minutes ago and had a chance to see the helicopters that we deployed, two from the State Police also two Army National Guards, Black Hawk helicopters, with incredible capacity. They've dropped over 500 buckets of water now to all of us, a bucket of water sounds like not a lot, bucket of water, except it's 300 gallons per bucket for the National State Police. And if it's for the Black Hawk helicopters, it's 600 gallons per bucket. So now you can see the scale of what we're talking about over 24,000, nearly 25,000 buckets of water dropped so far.

So, I want to acknowledge that, you know, this is something we're not as experienced with like they are out west. It's expansive, it's destructive, and we're taking it very, very seriously. And I want to say, I do believe that this is a result of climate change. You go through all these years, seeing this happen out west and this extreme weather out west, but places like New York would watch from a distance. We sent people. We were always the ones sending help to those places. And now we're in a situation where the State of New York is calling on for help from others. Again, even as far away as Quebec. So, these are extremely dry conditions. We know it was a lightning strike, but I just came from an event in Queens.

We had more hurricanes in the State of New York last year than all of Florida. That's extreme. That's climate change. That's what we're dealing with right now. And I've said before we are the first generation to feel the effects of mankind's assault on Mother Nature for decades, the effects of climate change, but we're really the last generation that can do anything about it. The last generation that can do anything. And that's how serious we're taking this in the State of New York. So again, coming up from Queens, talking to victims of a flood that ravaged city streets, took the lives of 16 New Yorkers, 11 from the borough of Queens alone. People flooded in their homes, their basement apartment.

We honored today the lives of those individuals. We also honored those who stepped up. The ordinary New Yorkers who were there doing everything you can to save lives, break through windows, pull someone out of flood waters in their basement apartment when the water got up to the ceiling. So, whether it's hurricanes floods, blizzards. Wasn't that long ago we had seven feet of snow over three days in Buffalo. I had to deal with that, and of course today it's wildfire. So, the point is we have to be ready. We have to expect the unexpected. Because the unexpected has now become the norm. That is our reality. That is our reality. And anyone who denies that just come to New York. Let me show you how our state has changed so dramatically.

Ask the farmers how different it is for them with their crops. Ask anyone in the tourism industry, places up on Lake Ontario that had a 100-year flood in 2017 and another 100-year flood in 2019. I made the observation, doesn't someone owe us 98 years in between these? So the 500-year event we had in New York City, the hundred-year events we're seeing upstate, with flooding in our Great Lakes, all the way to our rivers and valleys here in the Catskills.

This is the world we're dealing with. It's harsh. It's not what we want to be dealing with, but we have to be ready. And so, before I hand things over, I do just want to say again, we'll continue to keep the public updated. It's important. It's part of our responsibility. At this time, there is no threat to structures. There was one hunting cabin up way up at the top and we saved it. So, there has been. Loss of actual structures, lives are not threatened at this time. We are pretty certain that we'll be able to contain it, so that does not occur. But these are anxious times if you're living down in a place Ellenville or the nearby community, because you just don't know, you don't know whether the westerly winds are going to ship and become northerly.

So, there are things out of our control. That is why we're going to be vigilant. We're not going to stop our presence, making sure we have all the resources and the man and womanpower necessary to contain this fire and to be ready for the next major climate-driven event.