By Bruce Shipkowski
Chatswort, NJ (AP) – A rapidly evolving forest delay in part of the New Jersey Pinens did not injure, said officials, although he should grow before raining this week.
The fire in the south of New Jersey in New Jersey and the Cantons of Ocean reached about 19 squares squares and could continue to burn for days, officials announced on Wednesday during an update. No one has been injured so far in the fire and 5,000 inhabitants have been evacuated but have been allowed to return home. A single commercial building and some vehicles were destroyed in the fire.
“This is always a very active fire,” said Shawn Latourette, commissioner of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. “While we continue to master the total, the wait is that the number of acres will develop and develop in a place that is not populated.”
The officials said that the fire would be the second in the past two decades, only smaller than a 2007 fire that has burned 26 square miles.
The Garden State Parkway, one of the busiest highways in New Jersey, also reopened Wednesday morning after the officials closed a section of about 7 miles in the southern part of the state.
The acting governor Tahesha Way said the state of emergency early Wednesday, the officials said they contained approximately 35% of forest fires.
The video published by the state agency supervising firefighters showed clouds of white and black smoke, intense flames engulfing pines and firefighters by dushing a charred structure.
The cause of the fire is still the subject of an investigation, the authorities said.
Forest fires are common in pine barns, a state of 1.1 million acres and a reserve protected by the federal government the size of the Grand Canyon being halfway between Philadelphia to the west and the Atlantic coast to the east. The region, with its sandy sandy drainage soil, is in the middle of the peak forest fire season. The trees always develop leaves, the humidity remains low and the winds can start, drying the soil of the forest.
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Firefighters were fighting a house fire on Wednesday April 23, 2025 at Lacey Township, NJ (AP Photo / Matt Slocum)
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Firefighters were fighting a house fire on Wednesday April 23, 2025 at Lacey Township, NJ (AP Photo / Matt Slocum)
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It is a vast desert in the most densely populated state in the country. Latourette, the DEP commissioner, said that the fire rides an area on the edge of wild and residential areas.
“This is the interface where the environment and development meet,” he said.
The area had been under a serious drought until recently, when the rains in early spring have helped to alleviate the region, but the officials recently warned a low humidity and a dry section increased the risk of fire.
The Central Power and Light Company jersey has reduced electricity to around 25,000 customers at the request of the Forest Fire Service and the command post of Wildfire on Tuesday evening, including thousands in the canton of Barnegat. A company spokesperson said on Wednesday that some customers could restore power later during the day.
“It is for the safety of the crews that fight against the fire,” wrote the company on X.
Debi Schaffer was taken in traffic on the ground after having evacuated with her two dogs while her husband agreed to stay with their 22 chickens, the Atlantic City press reported.
“I wanted to take them to the car with me; Can you imagine 22 chickens in a car? ” She told the newspaper.
Around her house in Waretown, it was “like a war zone,” she said, describing the smoke, the sirens and the helicopter buzz.
The fire site is near an alpaca farm. The farm said in an article on Facebook that the property was not threatened and that all animals were safe.
The fire is the second major fire in the region’s forest in less than a week.
The writer of Associated Press Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
