By Rich McKay and Doyinsola Oladipo
(Reuters) -A fast-growing wildfire was burning in New Jersey’s Pinelands near its Atlantic Ocean beach towns on Wednesday and threatened to become the largest in the state in nearly 20 years, officials said on Wednesday.
The Jones Road Wildfire had spread to 13,250 acres (54 sq km) on Wednesday night and was 50% contained, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said in a statement.
It was no longer threatening populated areas but a “soaking rainfall” is needed to stop the fire, officials said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
The blaze could become the largest in New Jersey in about 20 years, said Shawn LaTourette, the state’s commissioner of environmental protection, at a press conference. A fire in May 2007 in the same area consumed 17,000 acres.
Embers from the fire sparked several small blazes near a decommissioned Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Waretown, according to state officials. The plant, owned by Holtec International, shut down in 2018.
Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency beginning at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. She was filling in for Governor Phil Murphy, who was on an overseas trip.
“At this time, we have no loss of life and no homes have been harmed,” Way said on X on Wednesday morning.
So far in 2025, New Jersey has experienced nearly twice as many wildfires as in the same period last year, with 662 wildfires burning over 16,500 acres. That compares with about 310 wildfires burning 315 acres in the first four months of 2024, Bill Donnelly, the chief of the forest fire service, said at the briefing.
On average, 1,500 wildfires damage or destroy 7,000 acres of the state’s forests each year, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said on its website.
The blaze started on Tuesday in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area near Lacey, Ocean and Barnegat townships in Ocean County, about halfway between Asbury Park and Atlantic City. The area is about 15 miles (24 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean shoreline.
About 1,300 homes were endangered, and between 3,000 and 5,000 people were under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders, which were lifted on Wednesday morning. In addition, a 17-mile stretch of the Garden State Parkway, a major north-south highway, was closed on Tuesday but reopened on Wednesday morning
Hundreds of firefighters have been working on the blaze for almost 24 hours straight, Donnelly said.
To fully stop the fire, crews need a “soaking rainfall” which might come this weekend, said John Cecil with the state’s environmental protection department.
(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Leslie Adler, Sandra Maler and Christian Schmollinger)
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