POMPTON LAKES, N.J.—A New York parks employee died battling one of a number of wildfires in New Jersey and New York amid dry conditions that have prompted air quality warnings in both states, authorities said Sunday.
The worker died when a tree fell on him Saturday afternoon as he battled a major brush fire along the New York-New Jersey border, according to reports from the Eastern Dutchess County Fire and Rescue and the New York state forestry services.
“Rip brother your shift is over job well done,” the New York State forestry services post said.
New York State Police said they were investigating the death amid the fire in Sterling Forest located in Greenwood Lake and identified the victim as Dariel Vasquez, an 18-year-old state Parks and Recreation aide employed by the New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Department.
“Wildland firefighting is a very dangerous profession, and we try to take as many precautions as we can mitigate some of the hazards that are out there in the wildland fire environment. But occasionally accidents do happen,” said Jeremy Oldroyd, forest ranger, New York State Department of Environmental Protection, adding that Vasquez died “assisting with fire line construction.”
The fires in New York and New Jersey come as firefighters are also battling a wildfire in California.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Forest Fire Service reported the sprawling blaze had spread to 3.9 square miles near the border in Passaic County’s West Milford and Orange County, New York. Officials said Sunday the blaze, dubbed the Jennings Creek wildfire, was now threatening 14 Greenwood Lake structures as well as two New Jersey homes and eight historic buildings in that state’s Long Pond Ironworks Historic District. Officials said Saturday afternoon that they did not believe evacutions would be necessary in either state.
Health advisories were issued for parts of New York, including New York City, and northeastern New Jersey due to unhealthy air quality due to smoke from the fires. People were urged to limit strenuous outdoor physical activity if possible; those especially sensitive included the very young and very old and people with ailments such as asthma and heart disease.
New Jersey officials, meanwhile, reported 75 percent containment of a 175-acre fire in the Pompton Lakes area of Passaic County that was threatening 55 homes, although no evacuations had been ordered.
Progress was also reported on fires in the Bethany Run area on the border of Burlington and Camden counties in Evesham and Voorhees townships; a blaze along the Palisades Interstate Parkway in Englewood Cliffs in Bergen County; and the Pheasant Run wildfire in the Glassboro wildlife protection area of Gloucester County.
Prosecutors in Ocean County on late Saturday afternoon announced arson and firearms charges in connection with a 350-acre Jackson Township fire that started Wednesday. They said it was sparked by magnesium shards from a shotgun round on the berm of a shooting range. Officials said firing that kind of “incendiary or tracer ammunition” was barred in the state. The majority of the blaze has been contained, officials reported Friday.
In Massachusetts, one wildfire among several fueled by powerful wind gusts and dry leaves burned more than 200 acres in the Lynn Woods Reservation, a municipal park that comprises about 3.4 square miles in the city 10 miles north of Boston. The Lynn Fire Department cited “a dry spell we have not seen during this time of year in many years.”
Across the county, favorable weather helped fire crews gain more control Sunday over a Southern California wildfire that has destroyed 134 structures and damaged dozens more.
Crews increased containment of the Mountain Fire to 26 percent in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles. The fire’s size remains around 32 square miles. The cause is under investigation.
“The fire continues to creep and smolder in steep rugged terrain. Threats remain to critical infrastructure, highways, and communities,” according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, better known as Cal Fire.
The fire broke out Wednesday and exploded in size with the arrival of dry, warm and gusty Santa Ana winds, forcing thousands of residents to flee suburban neighborhoods and agricultural areas near the city of Camarillo.
