New Jersey-New York wildfire keeps burning, fed by dry, windy conditions

Strengthening winds and bone-dry conditions were hindering firefighters working to gain control of a stubborn wildfire burning in a forested stretch along the New York-New Jersey state border about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of New York City.

The Jennings Creek Fire, which straddles the border between Passaic County, New Jersey, and New York’s Orange County, has torched some 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) of brush and thick woodland near Greenwood Lake and killed a park employee.

The blaze, which started late last week, was 20% contained, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said on Tuesday on Facebook. The cause of the fire was undetermined.

The conditions will “create turmoil, chaos and lot of uncertainty that we don’t need right now,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said during a news conference near the site of the fire. She said some 15 blazes were burning in her state in an unusually busy wildfire season.

New York State Police and National Guard helicopters were dumping water on the blaze, while more than 375 firefighters established fire lines to protect homes and contain the blaze.

No structures were being threatened on Tuesday, but some residents in the rural area had evacuated, Hochul said.

The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag warning that included parts of New York, New Jersey. Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It said wind gusts were expected to reach 45 miles (72 km) per hour with humidity levels around 20% in the region.

“The chances for more rain are not looking good for the next week or so,” said William Churchill, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Conditions are only expected to get slightly better on Wednesday, he said, with winds expected to taper off.

The region is in the middle of one of the driest autumns on record. It received its first measurable precipitation since mid-September on Monday, giving firefighters some, but brief, relief.