NEW YORK: Some 3,000 residents were evacuated in the US state of New Jersey after a wildfire exploded in size, scorching thousands of acres and threatening hundreds of structures, the state’s fire service said Tuesday.
As of 10:30 p.m. (0230 GMT) the Jones Road Wildfire was raging across Ocean County and was 10 percent contained, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said in a post on social media platform X.
It put the size of the blaze at 8,500 acres (3,440 hectares), just two hours after reporting the fire had hit 3,200 acres.
The fire service said “numerous” fire and rescue personnel had been deployed along with fire engines, bulldozers and ground crews.
It said the cause of the fire was “under investigation.”
Local media said the blaze had begun in a massive, rural coastal ecosystem known as the Pine Barrens, one of the largest protected land areas on the US East Coast.
New Jersey had been under an official drought warning, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection said in March.
Power was knocked out to roughly 25,000 customers, Jersey Central Power & Light said in a post on X.
The blaze also forced the closure of a section of the Garden State Parkway, a major highway through the state.
Ocean County, south of New York City, is a popular tourist destination that is part of the Jersey Shore and contains sights such as the Six Flags amusement park.
The fire service said it would hold a press conference on Wednesday.