Firefighters in New York said Sunday that a voluntary evacuation overnight helped them protect more than 160 homes from a stubborn wildfire near the New Jersey border as officials in much of the Northeast coped with hundreds of brush fires in tinder-dry and windy conditions. Communities in New England dealt with a similar surge in late fall fires , and many parts of the Northeast remained under red flag alerts this weekend. Across the country, California made good progress against a 32-square-mile (83-square-kilometer) fire in Ventura County that has destroyed more than 245 structures, most of them houses.
The Mountain fire was 95% contained. Windy conditions renewed a wildfire Saturday that escaped a containment line and prompted emergency officials to enact the voluntary evacuation plan affecting about 165 houses in Warwick, New York, near the New Jersey border. No structures were in danger as of Sunday afternoon as firefighters worked to tame the Jennings Creek blaze, New York Parks Department spokesman Jeff Wernick said.
The voluntary evacuation will remain in place at least until Monday, Wernick said. The wildfire had burned 7 1/2 square miles (19.4 square kilometers) across the two states as of Friday and was burning primarily in New York's Sterling Forest State Park, where the visitor center, the lakefront area at Greenwood Lake and a historic furnace area remained open.
Woodland activities including hunting were halted, Wernick said. It was 90% contained on the Passai.
