WEST MILFORD, N.J. - Firefighters in New York said Sunday that a successful voluntary evacuation overnight helped them protect about 165 homes near the New Jersey border from a wildfire.
However, New York City’s fire department has taken the first-of-its-kind step of creating a brush fire task force to respond to what officials are calling a historic increase in brush fires occurring throughout the five boroughs, the FDNY commissioner announced. From Nov. 1 to Nov.
14, the FDNY responded to 271 brush fires across the city, marking the highest two-week period in New York’s history. “Due to a significant lack of rainfall, the threat of fast-spreading brush fires fueled by dry vegetation and windy conditions have resulted in an historic increase of brush fires throughout New York City,” Commissioner Robert S. Tucker said in a statement.
Windy conditions renewed a Saturday that escaped a containment line and prompted emergency officials to enact a voluntary evacuation plan for a community near the New York-New Jersey border. The evacuation enacted out of “an abundance of caution” impacted about 165 houses in Warwick, New York, as firefighters continued working to tame the Jennings Creek blaze, New York Parks Department spokesman Jeff Wernick said in an email Saturday night. Firefighters’ efforts were successful and no structures were in danger as of early Sunday afternoon, Wernick said in a later email.
The voluntary evacuation will remain in place at least until Mo.