Firefighters work to contain a wildfire in South Jersey state forest
Dubbed the "Acorn Hill Wildfire," the blaze has consumed 200 acres in Burlington County.
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Firefighters were working to contain a forest fire that began in South Jersey on Monday afternoon, with about 60% of the 200-acre fire contained as of 6 p.m.
Dubbed the “Acorn Hill Wildfire,” the blaze broke out near Coopers Road in Woodland Township, Burlington County, in a section of the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
Officials shut down several forest roads and trails, including Coopers Road and the Glassworks Trail. The blaze was also threatening several campground structures in the state forest and decreasing visibility, fire officials says.
“Due to predicted weather conditions, smoke from the Acorn Hill Wildfire is expected to hang low to the ground” into the early morning hours on Tuesday, the Forest Fire Service posted on Facebook. “Drivers traveling in the area of Brendan T. Byrne State Forest are asked to stay vigilant when driving in smoke conditions.”
No injuries had been reported, per 6ABC, and a cause had yet to be determined.
Crews on the ground were using a “backfiring operation” to fight the fire, per the Forest Fire Service. That means firefighters are intentionally setting a fire on the edge of the blaze in an effort to control its direction.
New Jersey has had a busy wildfire season thus far: It started earlier than usual this year with the Jimmy’s Waterhole fire, which burned 3,800 acres of land in Ocean County, about 50 miles east of Philadelphia. Since then, other massive blazes have cropped up across the central and southern portions of the state, including a four-day-long fire in Bass River State Forest that temporarily closed the Garden State Parkway, and another in Burlington County that grew to overtake 850 acres.