A fire burning in southern New Jersey pine forests could become the state’s largest fire in 15 years, officials said Monday. The Mullica River fire has nearly tripled in size to 11,000 acres since Sunday morning and has been reduced by 50 percent, according to the New Jersey Fire Department (NJFFS). No injuries were reported, but the fire threatens at least 18 structures in the Wharton State Forest area, including the historic village of Batsto Village. The Wharton State Forest is located in an ecosystem known as the Pine Barrens, about 20 miles northwest of Atlantic City. Officials ruled out natural causes, and New Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said the fire could have been avoided. “It reminds me of the check we all share, to take care of the environment and each other, to follow the rules,” he told a news conference Monday. LaTourette did not say whether the researchers had identified the cause, but said he was talking about issues in general, including firefighting and other activities that are commonly caused by man-made fires. There were no restrictions on burns before the blaze broke out Sunday morning, officials said. As of Monday, firefighters were battling the blaze in four boroughs – Washington, Samong, Hammond and Mulika – as dry, windy conditions helped spread the blaze, according to the NJFFS. Authorities said winds were hampering helicopter watering efforts, and areas along the Mullica River – where the fire jumped twice – were too wet for equipment to enter, but not wet enough to stop the fire. Firefighters said crews were working to contain the blaze with firefighters, a fire brigade that deliberately set fires along the inside edge of a fire line to burn fuel on the fire path to prevent it from spreading. Firefighters are focusing their efforts on protecting structures at Wharton State Forest camps and Batsto Village, a historic site in Washington, D.C., according to Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The fire forced the two to close, including sections of US Route 206, a north-south road. “The fire is in the southern part of the state forest that runs along a state highway, Route 206, which is also close to wooded areas where there are no private homes in immediate danger,” Hajna told the Washington Post. The vast Wharton State Forest is home to several outdoor recreation areas that closed on Monday as a result of the fire. In contrast to California, where more than 10,000 buildings were destroyed or destroyed during the historic 2020 fire season, New Jersey wildfires tend to occur in less populated forest areas, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. In 2019, a Spring Hill fire burned 11,638 acres of southeastern pine forest in a remote part of Penn State Forest in Burlington County. New Jersey’s largest was Warren Grove in May 2007, which erupted after a flare was fired during a military bombing raid on Warren Grove. This continued to burn 17,000 acres in the Pine Barrens area. “Boy, this is the worst I’ve ever seen,” New Jersey resident Spike Wells told the Asbury Park Press on Monday about the latest fire. Wells, 71, lives about two miles from where officials blocked Route 206 and operates a nearby sawmill. “We’ve seen a lot of that,” Wells said. “Every year they have some forest fires, but not like that. It is terrible.”
