New Jersey forest fire explodes, closes the highway
Jones Road’s forest fire has now burned more than 20 square miles in the south of New Jersey. Since early Thursday morning, the fire has been 50% contained according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
The fire that started on Tuesday could become the “biggest fire in the New Jersey in 20 years,” said the head of the New Jersey environmental protection department Shawn Latourette. A forest fire in 2007 burned 26 miles square.
Up to 5,000 people were forced to evacuate their districts Tuesday evening while the fire was heading for houses in the County of Ocean and closed part of the Garden State promenade.
The fire started around 9:45 a.m. in the Greenwood forest management area and exploded on Tuesday evening, threatening more than 1,300 structures in the ocean and lacey cantons, according to New Jersey Fire Service.
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On Wednesday morning, all the evacuation orders were lifted for the cantons of Lacey and Ocean, the police services announced.
The acting governor Tahesha Way declared the state of emergency in the county of Ocean, but said that no house had been damaged. The firefighters announced that a commercial building had been destroyed, as well as dependencies and vehicles.
At the height of Tuesday evening’s rush hour, the fire closed a section of the Garden State walk between the cantons of Barnegat and Lacey, creating a traffic block while the residents were trying to evacuate. Several other roads in the region have also been closed.
The walk was reopened Wednesday morning in both directions.
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People go to an evacuation refuge at the Southern Regional High School of forest fires on Tuesday April 22, 2025, near the canton of Stafford, New Jersey.
(AP photo / Chris Szagola)
Jersey Central Power and Light closed electricity to around 25,000 customers, saying that he was at the request of the Forest Fire Service, for the safety of the crews that fight against the fire. The officials said that the crews were released on Wednesday by examining the damage and that electricity would have returned to around 6,700 customers in the canton of Lacey on Wednesday afternoon. Restoration in other areas would be based on current surveys.
No word on the cause of the fire, the fire officials said that a survey was underway, but some parts of South Jersey are in severe to severe drought. The rain is expected tomorrow when a cold front will bring showers Friday evening to Saturday.
This is a story in development; Continue to come back here for updates.
