What’s being called the “Jimmy’s Waterhole fire” has grown to nearly 4,000 acres, torching parts of Ocean County near Lakehurst and Manchester. People from more than 150 households had to evacuate Tuesday, but the Department of Environmental Protection says everyone is safe to return home and no injuries were reported, thanks to a team effort including more than 30 fire departments.
“This definitely had high potential to be extremely catastrophic. We had a really well-coordinated effort and good team cohesion between all the agencies that were here last night,” said Greg McLaughlin, state fire warden and chief of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
“We aren’t out of the woods yet, we’re in a dry stretch here until Friday. They’re talking maybe rain this weekend, but not much. Residents will see continued smolder and smoke and small flames, sometimes larger flames as we burn out pockets of unburnt fuel. That’ll be regularly occurring until we get significant rainfall to check the fire and smother it,” said Trevor Raynor, New Jersey Forest Fire Service warden.
The Forest Fire Service is still investigating the cause of the fire. McLaughlin said 99% of wildfires are caused by humans and this year has seen an increase in the number of fires compared to last year. Several wildfires burned in New Jersey on Tuesday, due to prime conditions for fires to start and spread — low humidity, strong winds and high temperatures.
