Halloween wildfire in Downe Township, New Jersey, burns over 120 acres, officials say
New images of flames shooting into the air showed the intensity of a wildfire that spread to 120 acres near Railroad Avenue in Downe Township, Cumberland County.
Fire officials said the wind was fanning the flames in the extremely dry conditions.
"Definitely challenging conditions, the block that we are in is really thick, there is some swampy areas in there, so access has been a challenge," said Alexis Everland, the incident commander for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
Chopper 3 was overhead Friday as heavy smoke billowed over the heavily wooded area. The NJFFS calls it the Halloween Wildfire.
It sparked around noon Thursday and flames started raging. Crews were using bulldozers to slow the spread, and the fire was last reported to be 75% contained.
"Since we haven't had any lightning recently, realistically, we figure it's some sort of human activity was responsible," said Bill Donnelly, New Jersey's state firewarden. "It's just been crazy...Nonstop."
No homes or buildings are threatened.
Fire crews in New Jersey have been working day and night in the unusually warm and dry weather. The Forest Fire Service said last year, from Sept. 15 to Nov. 1, there were 27 fires in the state that burned seven acres. In the same period this year, there have been 385 fires that burned nearly 800 acres.
"I don't think there's an hour of the day lately where we haven't had folks out dealing with some sort of a fire and we're slowly starting to wear our folks out," Donnelly said.
With an elevated risk, New Jersey remains under Stage 3 fire restrictions, which means open fires in or near wooded areas are currently banned unless contained in an elevated stove using only propane, natural gas, gas, or electricity. No charcoal fires are allowed.
"The fuels are so extremely dry that things that wouldn't typically start these fires are in fact starting the fires people need to be careful," Donnelly said.
The exact cause of this fire is still under investigation.
The wildfire happened as much of the Philadelphia region is under a moderate to severe drought.
NJFFS crews were battling a separate wildfire in Evesham Township on Wednesday night into Thursday. The wildfire was 90% contained as of Thursday morning.
