Fire Heat and trees

[Talon Tree Service]

I’ve done some searching but can’t find my exact issue.
I’m a good production climber with a good understanding of proper pruning and removals. I’m no arborist and do not claim to be.
So late last summer, I burnt a big rotten pirate ship swingset at my house. It was wet and rainy so I figured it was the perfect time to burn that thing. Long story short, it got way hotter than I ever thought and the heat wilted the leaves on one of my big red maple trees, about 40 feet away from the fire. The tree looks no different, the bark looks fine, no scorching or blackening of the bark or anything. it just wilted all the leaves so that they died on about 1/5th of the tree where it was closest to the fire. I hoped it would bud out this spring but it hasn’t so far on the side where the leaves wilted. It has budded at the very top, where the leaves wilted, but it has not in the mid or lower spots where the leaves were wilted and died.
So, is there anything I can do to help the tree compartmentalize or heal? It looks very healthy, minus the above mentioned lack of budding out in some areas

 

[ATH]

You probably killed some small twigs. How bad the damage is depends on how many and how big. If there are whole branches dead, I'd prune those off. But if it is just twigs, I'd leave them alone. I would also wait until May or June to see for sure what is not leaving out vs. what is just late.

 

[JD3000]

Here's some light reading

@KTSmith

 

[KTSmith]

Thanks JD for the plug. And for the OP, I have a few other fire-related articles in my webpage, linked to my profile here.
As for the situation posed by Mr. Talon:
Fires do get hot, don't they! Not immediately evident until you think about it, but much of the heat is straight up. You can put your hand next to a candle flame much more closely than you (or I, anyway) can directly above it. Probably not an issue here, but in some prescribed burns I've seen root damage leading to tree mortality, which was not an issue in my mind until I started doing the research work.
I'm with ATH in that if there are no immediate safety issues, I'd still wait a bit to see what may still open up. The lack of bark scorch on the stem is a very good sign. Part of my rap to the fire community is that the presence of scorch or even charred bark on a standing, living stem does not mean that a portion of the vascular cambium was killed. Species, of course vary, as does tree maturity. Again, more than you need.

 

[Talon Tree Service]

Thanks to all for the replies! I have been watching the tree and reading what was posted. Found a couple more articles as well! It is blooming out quite a bit more, only 2 larger limbs 2-3” diameter haven’t started to put leaves on, then some small 1” limbs in the top. I plan to watch it for another month and make sure it’s not just coming in late. It’s looking healthy, still no bark loss, and about 7/8 of the tree is putting on foliage. I apologize for the delay in response we have been so busy I don’t have time to be on the forums like I would like. We just had 120mph winds here, been taking trees off houses everyday for the past week. Thanks again all for the info!