Second teen charged in New Jersey forest fire as rain should help douse New York blaze

A second teenager was charged with intentionally setting a wildfire in a New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia as “significant” rainfall was expected to help douse a stubborn wildfire burning on the New Jersey-New York border Wednesday.

Many parts of the Northeast have been under red flag alerts, with firefighters responding to hundreds of brush fires in tinder-dry and windy conditions. Officials have said numerous prolonged rain storms are needed in parts of New England as well as New Jersey and New York, which are the driest in between 120 to 150 years.

And on the West Coast, weeks of dry conditions that raised wildfire risks were erased by a powerful storm known as a bomb cyclone that battered Washington, Oregon and Northern California with strong winds and heavy rain. Northwest of Los Angeles, crews were still mopping up a major blaze burning for two weeks that destroyed 240 structures. The Mountain Fire, which erupted Nov. 6 in Ventura County, was about 98% contained on Wednesday.

Police in Evesham Township said Wednesday they have arrested a 14-year-old from Marlton in connection with an Oct. 30 wildfire that burned about 52 acres (21 hectares). On Nov. 7, they charged another youth, also from Marlton, with setting that same fire. The latest arrest was made Tuesday and announced on Wednesday. Both are charged with aggravated arson, and causing or risking widespread injury or damage.

Both have been taken to a juvenile detention center as detectives investigate whether they might have been responsible for a second wildfire in Evesham a week later that burned a larger area, about 375 acres (152 hectares).

A storm moving into the New Jersey-New York area Wednesday was expected to bring what New York officials called “significant” rainfall to the area of the Jennings Creek wildfire, which has burned more than 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) and was 90% contained as of Wednesday morning.

“With rain on the way to help alleviate some strain from the fires and the drought, we encourage New Yorkers to conserve their water usage and not to burn fires outdoors,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “We thank our first responders and firefighters for their bravery, and know that without them, this fire would be much worse.”

She said helicopters have conducted more than 550 water drops onto the blaze since Nov. 11, totaling over 500,000 gallons (1.89 million liters). That’s enough to fill most of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

While the rain will undoubtedly help fire crews douse the fire, which is burning in several hard-to-reach areas of rugged terrain, the rain could bring its own challenges.

“Soil within the burned area will become unstable and erosive as it becomes more saturated,” the New York Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement Tuesday night. “Residents may see burned and decomposing trees fall within the fire area. A combination of mud and burned debris may run off into local waterways causing discoloration.”

Two other small wildfires in New Jersey were declared fully contained Wednesday morning. They were burning in Hainesport in Burlington County, and in Pine Park in Lakewood in Ocean County. Hochul said there are currently five other smaller wildfires burning in New York.

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