The Pine Barrens has long been fire prone, and many historic towns disappeared after fires claimed them, but Cedar Bridge endured because of its proximity to water and proper management of the area around the historic building. Fire from accidental, arson, and natural causes threatened both human and environmental growth throughout the region, and Cedar Bridge also faced that danger. On May 10, 1895, a fire was accidentally set while clearing a safety strip around a cranberry bog near Cedar Bridge; it burned for two days, consumed over 2,000 acres, and destroyed the bog along with a large cranberry and huckleberry crop. Although many fires burned around the tavern, it had stood untouched since 1816. Until the early 1900s, fire posed a greater threat because ladder fuels were poorly managed, firefighting tools were fewer, and those fighting fires lacked organization. In his 1894 report to the State Geologist on fire in the Pines, John Gifford noted the lack of unified action in fighting or preventing forest fires and reported 49 fires that burned 60,000 acres in Ocean, Atlantic, and Burlington Counties. Poor fire management led to close calls and loss of life, as in 1840, when a fire between Oyster Creek and Forked River moved so rapidly that the men fighting it had to run to the nearest body of water and George Collins was overtaken by the flames. In 1899, the consultant Gifford Pinchot called for forest fire control and the creation of a forest fire service, but a law creating the Forest Fire Service was not passed until 1906.