New Jersey Wild Fire blaze blackens 20 square miles
Pastor Dale Morgan
New Jersey Wild Fire blaze blackens 20 square miles*
POSTED: 1817 GMT (0217 HKT), May 16, 2007
Story Highlights
• Fire believed to have started when military jet drops flare on bombing
range
• 2,500 homes evacuated; five homes burned
• Blaze on Florida-Georgia border 50 percent contained
(CNN) -- A flare dropped from a military jet during a training exercise
may have caused a wildfire that has burned more than 20 square miles in
southern New Jersey, according to the state's National Guard.
"Normally flares burn out before coming in contact with the ground," New
Jersey National Guard spokesman Kryn Westhoven said. "A preliminary
investigation indicates that did not happen."
The Air Force has formed a safety investigation board and an accident
investigation board to determine if a flare started the fire, Maj. Gen.
Glenn K. Rieth of the National Guard said.
The blaze -- whipped by strong westerly winds -- pushed the fire toward
the Garden State Parkway in southern New Jersey Wednesday.
The fire is believed to have destroyed five homes and damaged 13 others
seriously, New Jersey State Police Lt. Col. Drew Lieb said.
About 2,500 homes have been evacuated, along with three nursing homes
and five retirement communities. More than 600 people are being kept in
shelters at nearby schools, authorities said.
"The fire is currently 30 percent contained," New Jersey Chief Fire
Warden Maris Gabliks said at midday Wednesday. Earlier he had said the
fire had the potential to get bigger.
"This fire will not be out until Mother Nature puts it out with a really
good rainstorm," he said. "There is a possibility of some thunderstorm
activity this afternoon, but at this point we cannot really tell you if
we will get rain here or not."
This area of New Jersey has gone 20 days without considerable rain,
leaving dry conditions that can combine with strong winds to increase
the fire menace. (Watch how winds, dry brush fuel blaze Video)
Gabliks stressed that firefighters' biggest concern is that the fire
doesn't cross the Garden State Parkway. If it does, he said, thousands
of homes will be threatened.
A portion of the parkway has been shut down because of blowing smoke,
Lieb said.
The National Guard has deployed three Black Hawk helicopters to help
firefighting efforts. Two of them are being used to dump water over the
flames.
The fire started Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. at the Warren Grove Firing Range.
The area burning is at the edge of the 1.1 million-acre Pinelands
National Reserve, about 25 miles north of Atlantic City.
Meanwhile, on the Florida-Georgia state line, the National Weather
Service said a red flag fire warning is likely Wednesday afternoon
because of low humidity.
So far, 730 homes have been evacuated because of the Bugaboo fire, and
Jim Caldwell, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said several
communities are being watched for possible evacuations if the fire spreads.
The fire, which began in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in
Georgia about two weeks ago, is 50 percent contained, after burning
119,501 acres. The part of the fire in Georgia, known as the Bugaboo
Scrub Fire, has destroyed 139,193 acres and is 15 percent contained.
Caldwell said visibility had improved, allowing firefighters to make
headway with burnouts, control lines, and air drops of slurry and water.
Airplanes and helicopters were back in the air, he said.
"We remain very, very dry. The fuel is a shrub, scrub mix and it burns
like gasoline," according to Caldwell.
CNN's Citabria Stevens, Amy Sahba, Allan Chernoff and Rob Marciano
contributed to this report.