Spread like ‘napalm,’ now 50% contained in 13,500 acres

WARETOWN — One of the worst wildfires in New Jersey’s history may continue to burn until rain drenches the area, likely on Friday night or Saturday, said New Jersey Forest Fire Service Chief Bill Donnelly.

Firefighters were making progress with the blaze — 50% of it was contained as of Wednesday evening — that started as five acres on Tuesday morning and would grow to consume at least 13,500 acres of Pine Barrens, according to the forest fire service.

Thousands were evacuated from their homes, including 5,000 people in Waretown and Lacey alone, according to the fire service.

“New Jersey has some of the most volatile wildland fire fuels in the entire country,” Donnelly explained at an afternoon news conference. “Everybody’s used to seeing California and things like that, that chaparral that burns up the hills and goes crazy. These Pine Barrens out here are the exact same type of fuel model. They’re just like having napalm spread across the ground.”

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While no one was injured, three buildings in an industrial park in neighboring Lacey caught fire, with one destroyed. As of Wednesday night, 12 structures remained under threat.

Bob Nosti, owner of Liberty Door and Awning, a 39-year-old garage door and awning company in the industrial park since 2012, arrived Wednesday morning to find his business burned to the ground.

A day earlier, the fire had been an afterthought for him: “Earlier in the day … it was a couple towns south of here, all I know is that it moved pretty quick,” Nosti said.

“Then all of a sudden, my building was gone an hour later,” he said. “It’s gut-wrenching for sure, but we’ll be all right. We’ll rebuild – and we’ll build it bigger and better.”

As the evening fell on Tuesday, Jersey Central Power & Light was forced to turn off the electricity to 25,000 customers. Parts of southern Ocean County took an almost apocalyptic vibe as a dark column of smoke moved closer to populated neighborhoods along Barnegat Bay.

An acrid burning smell filled the air and the steady sound of distant emergency vehicle sirens would be a constant companion that would continue through the night.

Motorists trying to return home from work in the rush hour commute found themselves with few options but to sit in gridlock, after authorities closed the Garden State Parkway and a few of the century-old back roads through the Pine Barrens that connect much of southern Ocean County to the outside world.

Almost everyone had been allowed to return to their homes Wednesday and power was restored to a majority of JCP&L customers by the late afternoon. Some homes on Route 532 — called Wells Mills Road in Waretown — were still under risk but the county highway opened to traffic on Wednesday night.

This area of New Jersey is within a “wildland urban interface” that leads to risk, said Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, at a news conference on Wednesday.

The state forest fire service is a division of the DEP. LaTourtte said that while the fire continued to burn, the damage was expected to be confined to the uninhabited wilderness of the Pinelands.

“We’ve truly averted a major disaster,” he said.

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LaTourette said the fire could end up becoming the largest wildfire in New Jersey in 20 years.

Earlier, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way — acting governor when Gov. Phil Murphy leaves the state — declared a state of emergency for southern Ocean County.

LaTourette said the fire was “throwing itself” and creating “spot” fires.

“From the main fire on the west side of the parkway, winds were carrying embers that landed in another spot, creating a flanking fire,” he said.

Chief Donnelly said fire crews from across the state — from Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Ocean and Monmouth counties — came to the aid of the affected towns.

“I would say it was hundreds of fire trucks, without a doubt here, everywhere you look, there were resources from counties throughout southern New Jersey,” Donelly said.

The fire may continue to burn until — if the forecast remains so — the region gets hit with rain, early in the weekend, he said.

The fire began near the municipal boundary between Waretown and Barnegat. The forest fire service has named the conflagration the Jones Road fire, after the dirt road of the same name in the Brookville section of Ocean Township, of which Waretown is also a section.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Contact Asbury Park Press reporter Erik Larsen at elarsen@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ wildfire: Spread like ‘napalm,’ now 50% contained in 13,500 acres