A second teen is charged with starting a Burlington County wildfire

A second teenager has been charged with aggravated arson for starting a Burlington County wildfire that blazed for several days beginning Oct. 30.

Evesham Township police arrested the 14-year-old male suspect from Marlton Tuesday. The teenager is being held in the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center pending his first court appearance on an unspecified date, police said in a Facebook post. The youth also faces a charge of causing or risking widespread injury or damage for the wildfire, which consumed 52 acres of South Jersey forest.

Evesham police are withholding his identity because he is a juvenile, and said that they are continuing efforts to identify all suspects involved with forest fires in the town. It is unclear how many other suspects police believe there may be. No structures were damaged in the Oct. 30 fire, according to police.

Police arrested and charged another Marlton 14-year-old in connection with the wildfire on Nov. 7. Following the arrest, Evesham police said that they had located evidence that indicated the wildfire began as arson, meaning the fire was intentionally set, though they did not describe that evidence. At the time, authorities were still investigating whether another wildfire that began on Nov. 7 in a similar area that burned over 375 acres was connected to the Oct. 30 fire. It remains unclear whether there is a connection between the two wildfires. The second fire also damaged no structures and was put out after several days, according to police.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a drought warning for the state on Nov. 13, after over 500 wildfires have broken out since October. It is the first time that the state has declared a drought warning since 2016.

“The impact of this dryness on wildfires cannot be overstated,” Greg McLaughlin, chief of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, told The Inquirer last week.