A state forest-fire official used to tell people that the only structure safe in the Pinelands is a huge concrete bunker.

Short of living in a bomb shelter, Fire Prevention officer Joseph Hughes cautions residents to practice fire safety to protect their homes and families from potential disaster.

Twenty-three years after the worst fires in Pinelands history burned more than 186,000 acres of forests, killed seven people, and damaged or destroyed 186 houses around the state, are residents ready should a similar inferno strike again?

Nine houses have been destroyed and one resident (a heart attack victim) has died in forest fires since the 1963 inferno. But the Pinelands population has more than doubled in the last 23 years, and there is no room for complacency, fire officials say.

Homes are so closely clustered today that even a one-acre fire, they say, can burn down a family's house. "We've been lucky as hell," said Tom Gerber, a Medford section fire warden. "I don't see how we can constantly keep saving these houses."

Evesham Mayor Raymond Brosel said the planning board and fire companies have expressed concern about the potential impact of fire on Kings Grant, a 875-unit development.

Discussions are under way on how to improve access to the woods-shrouded homes, said Brosel, who added that you have to see a bad fire to appreciate the danger.

Medford Mayor Paul Long said he couldn't vouch for residents' fire awareness but he knows the Township Council gives fire protection special attention. About six months ago, he said, the council approved the purchase of a new tanker for one of the fire companies.

Development is being planned with care, he said, adding: "I would have great fear if we just went ahead and built willy-nilly

Susan Woods, a resident of the 875-unit Kings Grant development in Evesham, has seen a fire come within two miles of the homes. She's prepared. Every fall she brushes shredded pine needles off her combustible cedar shake roof, she said, and with a rake clears debris around her Spanish villa-style house.

I'm the little forest ranger here," Mrs. Woods said. But she considers herself the exception. Every house has a faucet in the front and out back but most people don't have hoses attached, she said.

"The majority of people in Kings Grant are really rookies," Mrs. Woods said. "They want suburban living in the Pinelands."

That is precisely why Mrs. Woods' neighbor, Barbara Hirsch, left New York 18 months ago. Looking for breathing room, she fled the concrete jungle and headed for the open spaces, first Cherry Hill and then Kings Grant, where she moved last July.

Forest fires are alien to her. Mrs. Hirsch said she always assumed fires strike isolated campgrounds, not residential areas.

Her knowledge of safety measures is limited: Don't throw matches or start an open fire in the woods. Beyond that, she said, "I never gave it a second thought, because I'm in a house."

Terry Hoffman, her husband and two children live on Press Avenue in Browns Mills, a hot spot for fires. She said she is unaware of fire safety rules and doesn't really worry about them.

"If you were constantly afraid of a forest fire, you'd never move out to the woods," Mrs. Hoffman said.

Californians construct earthquake-proof buildings that sway but don't fall. Residents of Mississippi River towns shore up dikes after floods wash out their property. With the right precautions, Pinelands residents can also increase their chances should they face a forest fire.

The Pinelands Commission's Comprehensive Management Plan, adopted in 1980, sets several fire-safety standards that developers must meet for site-plan approval.

The standards direct developers to provide adequate access for fire-fighting equipment at dead-end roads and make it mandatory to maintain a 30-foot clearance of trees and shrubs around houses in moderate fire-hazard areas, a 75-foot clearance in high-hazard areas, and a 100-foot clearance in extreme-hazard areas. The degree of hazard is determined by the type of vegetation.

Medford builder Bob Meyer Jr. said the regulations, which are administered by municipalities, add about $1,000 to the cost of a house. That is approximately what is costs him, he said, to clear woods, to build access roads, and to landscape the property.

"Whenever you have city water, you have to put in fire hydrants," Meyer said. This further increases the cost of the house. Sections of Medford Township have fire hydrants, which are installed every 600 feet.

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service distributes a brochure with fire-safety tips and conducts programs at schools, malls and teachers conventions. Residents are advised to remove leaves and twigs from the roof, to keep stored flammable materials away from the house, to prune branches and overhanging limbs, and to install a spark arrestor on the fireplace flue.

"People used to ask what kind of house would be safe in the Pinelands, and we used to say a 'concrete bunker about a quarter mile around,'" Hughes said half kidding.

In more practical terms, Hughes suggests putting on roofs made of fire-resistant materials such as asphalt, shingles, slate and tile. Cedar shakes, which look nice but easily ignite, should be avoided, as should wood siding, he said.

"A well-watered green lawn is an excellent fire break, so this is something that we like to encourage," Hughes said.

Pinelands residents have the same insurance options as everyone else. A discount is available for homeowners who live close to fire hydrants, and insurance coverage may be withheld from residents who live five miles or more from a fire station, according to insurance agents.

Being prepared is the best insurance. Last fall a countywide fire task force of fire companies, the state Forest Fire Service, and local emergency management coordinators conducted a forest-fire drill.

Twenty township fire companies, which would be responsible for saving property and lives, raced to an imaginary forest fire in Medford.

After the exercise, the effort was critiqued. County Fire Marshal Evan Kline said in a recent interview that some firefighters were operating on different radio frequencies, so communications have to be improved.

Kline added that county fire officials have to work with Medford Township officials to upgrade roads that only provide one way out of developments.

Fire officials consider West Centennial Drive, a narrow winding two lane road that goes through the Centennial Lakes development, a problem area.

"One accident could tie, up the road and keep people f rom getting out," Hughes said. "Firefighters could try to come the same way that people were evacuating, and the smoke, flame and confusion" could cause other accidents.

John Crafchun, Medford's emergency management coordinator, said the, township is working to make West Centennial Drive more accessible to fire equipment. A small portion of Borton Road, a dirt pathway to the Centennial Lakes and Braddocks mill developments, may be limited to emergency use, he said.

But Crafchun said township officials could do a better job of educating residents about forest fires.

Centennial Lakes is a woodsy residential section in the western half of Medford with about 90 homes. A new development under construction there will be served by city water. The addition of water hydrants into the area is expected to improve firefighting efforts.

Allan Tiburzi's house on West Centennial Drive is surrounded by trees, a few of which crowd against his house. He said his wife would not allow him to trim a tree that hangs over the house.

Pinelands residents, he said, like the trees and don't want to cut them down. Lightning, which could topple a tree into his house, is a bigger concern to him than fire, he said.

"If a fire ever got that close, I'd be long gone," Tiburzi said.

Tiburzi's escape route is the lake behind his house. I guess I always feel safe if there's water behind me," Tiburzi said. "We could get in our canoe" and paddle across the lake.

Evacuations often follow a basic procedure. Police notify residents of imminent danger through a loudspeaker, and contact the American Red Cross and Burlington County Central Communications. Homeowners are taken to firehouses or schools.

In July 1982, a 300-acre fire in Wharton State forest moved perilously close to the Oakview Mobile Home Estates, threatening the propane gas tanks used for heating and cooking.

The fire never quite made it to the mobile home park, which was covered with soot, but state police had to evacuate 90 residents as a precaution. Residents returned that night.

The front entrance to the trailer park was roped off. Although a few residents refused to leave, the operation went smoothly. Evacuations are not always that orderly, though.

Alfred Smith, who trains forest firefighters in Burlington County, said panicky people are the biggest concern in forest fires. A woman who was camping was told to evacuate because a fire was heading her way, Smith said.

"She went screaming out and jumped in her car," Smith said. "She left her tent, her bicycle, two kids and a dog. Didn't even realize it, just roared out."

Firefighters had to rescue her kids.

Charles Cooper Jr., 45, had to bail out when a fire consumed his Chatsworth home in 1953.

His father rebuilt on the same spot, where Cooper lives today.

He counsels using common sense to guard against fire: clear the surrounding property and clean the chimney. And, most of all, don't waste time getting out.

"Any fire's dangerous," Cooper said. "You can't wait until the fire's at the front door."