Active wildfire season continues in New Jersey; Burlington County blaze now 100% contained
The wildfire grew to 246 acres, officials said Tuesday morning.
WOODLAND TWP., New Jersey (WPVI) -- A Burlington County forest fire is 100% contained as firefighters continue to work through a long and strenuous fire season in New Jersey.
Kyla Jacobs is one of the campers in the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest who noticed firefighters working through the night.
"This morning when we woke up we noticed all the ash everywhere and definitely a lot of smoke smell," said Jacobs, of Delran.
The Acorn Hill Wildfire reached 246 acres in size and threatened a few structures in the state forest campground, though none were damaged and no evacuations were ordered.
It's the latest in what has been a very busy wildfire season in New Jersey.
"Especially earlier in April and May we were having very high-intensity fires," said John Earlin, a New Jersey Forest Fire Service Section Warden.
He says it's taken a toll on firefighters.
"They're working a lot more. A lot of my guys have other jobs and they're starting to run out of time," said Earlin.
So far this year in New Jersey there have been 12 major wildfires, with ten of them in our area.
A major wildfire is one that burns 100 acres or more.
According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, in all of 2022 there were two major wildfires.
In 2021 there were three.
So far this year, 16,445 acres have burned overall.
For the same time period in 2022, 11,878 acres burned.
1,807 acres burned from January 1 to June 20 in 2021.
State officials say even the storms we've had recently haven't been all that helpful.
"They haven't produced very much rain. But they've produced a lot of lightning. So we've seen a couple fires recently that we've determined the cause to be started from lightning," said Greg McLaughlin, Chief State Fire Warden for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
He says often people have good intentions when it comes to campfires, but things go wrong.
"Make sure those fires are out completely," said McLaughlin. "Cold to the touch as we like to say. Keep them contained so they can't spread."
McLaughlin says the good news is that even with all the fires this year, there have been no serious injuries to people or structures lost.
