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A fast-moving wildfire in New Jersey expanded to 8,500 acres Tuesday afternoon, causing over 3,000 evacuations and threatening more than 1,300 structures while also closing a portion of the Garden State Parkway in the southern portion of the state.
The fire started in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area of Ocean County Tuesday morning and 10% of the fire has been contained, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said. The cause is under investigation.
No injuries have been reported, but several businesses in an industrial park in Lacey Township have burned, Ocean County Undersheriff Jon Lombardi told CNN. It doesn’t appear any homes have suffered major damage, he said.
The fire is already having impacts on the state, with nearly 26,000 customers impacted by power outages in Ocean County, according to PowerOutage.US. A nearby chunk of the Garden State Parkway, a main artery in the state, is closed as well, New Jersey State Police said.
Thick, black clouds filled the sky, prompting a public health advisory in the county as air quality worsened. Some buildings appear to have already been burnt as firefighters work to protect structures, aerials from CNN affiliate WPVI show.
The smoke wasn’t too bad at first, Giana Nicholas told CNN affiliate News 12 New Jersey, but it quickly escalated and forced her family to evacuate.
“Eventually as the night went on, smoke flooded the streets,” she said.
The fire comes as New Jersey is under an official drought warning, with “well-below average precipitation throughout the winter,” the state said in a news release last month. Approximately 7,000 acres of New Jersey’s forests are burnt each year, with Tuesday’s fire surpassing the yearly average.
While wildfires aren’t as common as in other areas of the country, the region is no stranger to the phenomenon. The Jennings Creek Fire burned several thousand acres in New Jersey and New York in November, prompting heavy response from both states.
Winds Tuesday afternoon consistently gusted between 15 and 25 mph, but are expected to decrease later tonight. Dry weather is expected for the remainder of the week, but winds are expected to be much weaker, at only 5 to 10 mph.