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A fast-moving wildfire engulfing part of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens has not resulted in any injuries though it’s expected to continue to grow before forecast rain later this week. At a news conference Wednesday officials said the fire in southern New Jersey could continue to burn for days. It is currently burning about 20 square miles and is about 50% contained.
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Of course, we begin tonight with the Jones Road fire still burning in New Jersey
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Here's the very latest. It's now 50 percent contained with more than 13,000 acres burned
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All evacuation orders have been lifted, but crews are still on the ground in Ocean and Lacey Townships
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about 80 miles south of New York City. We have Fox 5 Live team coverage for you tonight
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Chief Neurologist Nick Gregory is looking at how the weather is impacting the firefight. But let's start off with Linda Schmidt, who's live on the ground in Weartown, Ocean County
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Linda, what's the latest? Yeah, good evening, first of all, to you there, Natasha
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First of all, let me tell you this. Firefighters are making progress down here in South Jersey in Ocean County
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However, the dry conditions here, extremely dry conditions, are making this very difficult
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Go ahead, take a look at this video, because this is video from earlier tonight of the fire in Ocean and Lacey Townships
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Authorities say 12 structures are still at risk here tonight. Fire officials do not expect to have the wildfire fully contained until at least Saturday
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Helicopters loaded up buckets of water today to drop on the fire and that happened until it got dark tonight And then just take a look at the raging inferno from last night
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It started at 9.45 in the morning yesterday, closing down a huge area of the Garden State Parkway and Route 9
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By the way, they both fully reopened today. Officials say they are still getting calls from residents here about little pop-up fires
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These fires, with the dryness and the winds, they throw spot fires and embers
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little tiny firebrands up to a mile out in front of that main fire
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So even if we're successful in stopping the fire on this barrier, this control line
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there's still embers that rain down, shower down on homes. Now, as of right now, no one has been hurt, thankfully, and no homes have been damaged
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But unfortunately, a family-owned business in Forkhead River called Liberty Door and Awning Company was burned to the ground
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It was gone in an hour I would say Yeah it was that fast We knew the fire was out there but didn think it was going to be a problem here And it came pretty quick
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And naturally, the cause of this fire, because it just started at quarter of 10 yesterday
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morning, the cause remains under investigation. Back inside to you, Natasha. All right, Linda, thank you so much. Let's take another look at that line of flames and
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hot spots and you see all of that, you can't help but wonder how the wind and dry conditions are
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playing a role in the firefight. Chief Neurologist Nick Gregory continues our team coverage with that
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part of the story. Nick? Yes, Natasha, it's just been a very dry conditions for quite some time
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now, right? We haven't had real good measurable rainfall in a bit and humidity levels have been
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very dry. Now they've come up a little bit tonight in the 45-50 percent range, but much of today
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those humidity levels were down around 20-25 percent. So again, that just sort of adds to
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this. We are moving into the high part of forest fire season. And the other thing, of course
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is the wind Fortunately now it calm in a lot of the area a very light wind coming up out of the south Still a little bit of a wind can carry those embers but at least it not a full gusty breeze that in effect In fact look at our future wind forecast here going into tomorrow
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Mostly a southerly wind, again, averaging in that 5 to 10 mile per hour range. And that will continue tomorrow night
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on into Friday as well. Again, not a lot of wind to really worry about. But notice the direction of the wind
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so that potentially could bring some of that smoke on up into our area. And the National Weather Service has put out
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put out an air quality alert for the parts of the lower Hudson Valley. It doesn't include the city
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of Long Island. That's going to go until Friday, really late Thursday night. And we do have the
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one down here as you head into Ocean County on southward. That's going to go into Thursday. Now
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as you heard in that report, a good soaking rate would help. There's nothing really out there
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Showers are going to pass off to our north, and you'll see here in our future cast, we're dry tonight. We get back down into the 40s and middle to upper 50s around the city
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Showers will stay way off to the north. Tomorrow will be another mild but a dry day. Temperature is kind of holding into the 70s except cooler along the coast
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When will that rain come? It will be on Saturday. So hopefully by then either the fire will be mostly under control
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or it will actually help put a lot of those flames out. Yeah, I hope so
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All right, Nick, thank you
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