Twenty-three years ago today, natural forces laid siege to a big chunk of New Jersey.

Scores of fires roared through the Pinelands with the effect of napalm bombs, destroying $8.5 million worth of property in a three-day campaign. Despite firefighters' heroic efforts, it took rain to halt the carnage.

Almost 4 percent of the state-186,000 acres-burned that April weekend; seven people were killed; and 186 houses were damaged or destroyed.

Based on past history, fire officials say there are a number of potential targets in Burlington County for future destruction by fire. Among them: the sprawling Kings Grant development in Evesham, the western half of Medford and parts of Browns Mills.

So the question comes up: Are we ready should an inferno engulf any of the more than 50 communities in the Pinelands now?

If that fire were to happen today it would be a total holocaust," said state Fire Warden David Harrison.

"There would be 10 times over the homes destroyed, 10 times over the lives lost, because the people don't know how fast our fires can burn and they don't know the intensity they burn," he said.

Harrison's concern is apt now, at the height of the forest fire season. The worst time of the year for fires is March 15 to May 15, when low relative humidity, longer days and warm, dry southwest winds create perfect conditions for a fire.

Indian summer, October 15 to November 15, is another bad season, but fires can strike at any time. Only the winter months are considered off-season.

Prime time for fires is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. After those hours, the sun goes down and winds diminish, while humidity begins to climb. Fuels such as leaves and twigs on the forest floor pick up moisture quicker at night, fire officials said.

A volatile mix of other factors heightens concern: population growth, the fact that 99 percent of forest fires are caused by man, New Jersey's highly flammable woodlands, and the low fire awareness among residents, especially newcomers to the Pinelands.

The New Jersey Bureau of Forest Fire Management directs more than 2,000 paid firefighters in three divisions covering the northern, central and southern portions of the state. They are responsible for protecting more than 2.7 million acres of forest statewide, but most fires occur in the Pinelands.

The Pinelands, a 1.1 million acre federal land reserve, is located in parts of seven counties: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and ocean. The largest portion is in Burlington County - 526 of the county's 827 square miles, or 63 percent of its land area, is in the Pinelands.

There are 56 towns in the Pinelands. In Burlington County they are Bass River, Evesham, Medford Lakes, New Hanover, North Hanover, Pemberton Township, Shamong, Southampton, Springfield, Tabernacle, Washington Township, Woodland and Wrightstown.

According to census figures, between 1960 and 1980 the population in the Pinelands more than doubled from 257,147 to 581,617.

"The more people, the more activity that you have in a particular area, the more of a problem you're going to have," said Joseph Hughes, assistant state fire warden and fire prevention officer.

More than sheer numbers, however, it is the location of these people that frazzle firefighters' nerves. In 1963, most of the developments were on the fringes of the Pinelands; some are now in the heart of the region, where dead-end roads and cul-de-sacs complicate evacuations and firefighting efforts.

Although the Pinelands Commission's Comprehensive Management Plan restricts building in preservation areas, regional growth zones are still experiencing development spurts.

Kings Grant today has 875 homes and eventually will have 4,500 units on 1,800 acres. A 1968 blaze burned 300 acres of unpopulated woods in Medford and Evesham, including a portion of present-day Kings Grant.

The western half of Medford, squarely in a fire hazard zone, has 865 existing homes, another 150 homes are approved for construction and another 200 are proposed. Forest-fire officials presented a fire history map to the township planning board a few years ago. It showed two large fires that brushed Centennial Lakes and the Braddocks Mill area.

The population of Browns Mills, a wooded area in Pemberton Township, increased from 7,144 in 1970 to 10,568 in 1980. No statistics were available for the 1960 population or the number of homes. One of the 1963 fires hit here.

Property losses around the state in the 1963 fire were $8.5 million. Fire officials calculate that the losses today, adjusted for inflation, would be between $30 million to $60 million. The estimates do not take into account new construction.

The average price of a new home today in the Medford area, including the portion of Evesham Township in the Pinelands, is $200,000. The average resale is $125,000 to $130,000, said Medford Realtor Steven Brick. Eighty percent of the big expensive homes did not exist in 1963, he said.

"If they're (local officials) going to put people in there and homes in there, we can't be held responsible to give them protection," Harrison said.

Insurance companies, however, do not consider Pinelands' residents a higher risk. "No one is penalized because they live in the Pine Barrens," said Dan Rosatto, an insurance agent with Chesley and Cline, which has an office in Pemberton.

Ray Morgan, an agent with Allstate Insurance in Medford, said the same rules apply to Pinelands residents as to any other homeowner. Property owners more than five miles from a fire department will have trouble getting coverage.

Susan Woods, president of the Villa Royale Association, whose members live in a small development in Kings Grant, said living in the Pinelands does present special hazards. She worries that people could be caught napping during an early morning fire.

"This is a sleepy community," Mrs. Woods said. "There are no warning systems here for forest fire. There's no way to alert people other than pounding on doors."

Ninety-nine percent of forest fires are caused by man, a frightening statistic considering the multiplying number of homes and people. The state Forest Fire Service provides the following breakdown of causes:

52.2 percent are intentionally set.

Children playing with matches near developments account for 14.6 percent.

Smoker's discarded matches, cigarettes, cigars and ashes from pipe tobacco are responsible for 11.3 percent.

Campfires, careless use of equipment, and miscellaneous (auto accidents and building fires, for instance) comprise 15.1 percent.

Natural causes such as lightning make up only 1 percent, because in New Jersey, unlike out West, lightning is usually followed by rain.

To make matters worse, New Jersey has the most hazardous forest fuels (shrubs and trees) in the country, according to fire officials. There are 20 to 23 tons of fuel per acre, and the U.S. Forest Fire Service rates the pine tree the most flammable forest fuel in the county, said Ray Holmes, Division B fire warden.

California chaparral burns more intensely but is not considered a forest fuel because it is classified as brush. But pines, oaks and cedars generally burn faster and generate more heat and energy than most vegetation in California.

A bad crown fire, which burns across tree tops, is capable of releasing energy equal to a 10-megaton bomb (like the explosive force of 10 million tons of dynamite) going off every 20 minutes, fire officials say. And at least one time, the heat changed the weather, causing a storm to come in off the ocean.

"The forces are immense, it's almost impossible to realize," said Alfred Smith, fire training officer at Division B headquarters in Lebanon State Forest in Woodland Township. "Trees are torn out of the ground. Stones are thrown ... There's nothing left but large pebbles, white sand."

And the fires burn fast. Hughes said one fire in 1963 covered nine miles in six hours, or 1.5 miles per hour. A rare few, he said, have been known to spread 4.5 miles per hour.

Since 1962, there have been 38,430 fires in the state and 445,763 acres scorched, killing 12 people and destroying at least 195 homes. More than 100 acres is considered a major fire.

Last year, in the midst of a drought, there were 1,840 fires in the state that burned 10,329 acres.

Through last Wednesday there have been 614 fires so far this fire season, which is about average, Harrison said. Precipitation was above average in January and February but March was very dry. The heavy rains last week helped put the downpour at a record pace for April.

Harrison said this month's rainfall has helped decrease the threat of fire, but he cautioned that residents are not out of the woods yet because swamps tend to dry up quickly. Swamps provide fire breaks.

Educating residents, conducting controlled burns and issuing permits for open burning are the tools the Forest Fire Service uses to reduce the threat of fire.

Banned is the open-air burning of trash, fallen leaves, plant life, building materials, and setting fire to buildings as a method of demolition. Fire permits are required for recreational fires and for agricultural burning.

Penalties for setting accidental fires are up to $5,000 in fines; the maximum fine for arson is $100,000.

The Forest Fire Service has developed a brochure on fire safety. A lot of them are put in mailboxes, but Harrison said he doesn't think the message gets through.

The residents' lack of knowledge about forest fires is evident in conversations he's had with them. Harrison said.

A lot of people "can't understand how the green forest can burn," he said. "We've been told that they really don't care (about fire safety). They're willing to gamble."

Controlled burns, which reduce vegetation on the forest floor, are usually conducted on state lands between November and the beginning of March on days with a mild northwest wind. Too strong a wind, Holmes said, can fan flames. A parcel is burned every three or four years.

Owners of private land can hire their own people to conduct a controlled burn as long as they get a permit.

Forest fires, through hazardous to people, actually benefit trees and plants. Professor Ralph Good, professor of botany and director of Pinelands research at Rutgers University, said rare and endangered plants flourish after a fire, which releases nutrients and minerals. .

He said fire also clears trees and provides species much needed light. "Most of the plants and many of the animals are adapted to fire, people aren't," Good said.