POMPTON LAKES, N.J. – Fire crews on both coasts of the United States continued battling wildfires on Sunday, including a blaze in New York and New Jersey that killed a parks employee and another in Southern California that destroyed more than 130 structures and damaged dozens more.
Firefighters continued making progress against a wildfire northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County that broke out Wednesday and quickly exploded in size due to dry, warm and gusty Santa Ana winds.
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The Mountain Fire prompted thousands of residents to flee their homes and was 26% contained as of Sunday, up from 21% the previous day. The fire’s size remains around 32 square miles (about 83 square kilometers). The cause is under investigation.
“The fire continues to creep and smolder in steep rugged terrain. Threats remain to critical infrastructure, highways, and communities,” according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, better known as Cal Fire.
Meanwhile, New York State Police said they were investigating the death of Dariel Vasquez, an 18-year-old state parks employee who died when a tree fell on him Saturday afternoon as he battled a major brush fire in Sterling Forest, located in New York state's Greenwood Lake near the New Jersey line.
“Rip brother your shift is over job well done,” a New York State forestry services post said.
Jeremy Oldroyd, a forest ranger with New York state, said that Vasquez died “assisting with fire line construction.”
“Wildland firefighting is a very dangerous profession, and we try to take as many precautions as we can mitigate some of the hazards that are out there in the wildland fire environment. But occasionally accidents do happen,” he said.
New Jersey's state forest fire service said Sunday that the blaze — dubbed the Jennings Creek Wildfire — was threatening 25 structures, including two New Jersey homes. It had grown to 4.7 square miles (12 square kilometers) and was 10% contained as of Sunday night.
Health advisories were issued for parts of New York, including New York City, and northeastern New Jersey due to unhealthy air quality due to smoke from the fires. People were urged to limit strenuous outdoor physical activity if possible; those especially sensitive included the very young and very old and people with ailments such as asthma and heart disease.
But there was progress on other fires.
New Jersey officials reported 75% containment of a 175-acre (70-hectare) fire in the Pompton Lakes area of Passaic County that was threatening 55 homes, although no evacuations had been ordered, as well as progress made on other fires burning in the state amid bone-dry conditions.
In New Jersey, Ocean County prosecutors on Saturday announced arson and firearms charges in connection with a 350-acre (142-hectare) Jackson Township fire that started Wednesday.
They said that fire was sparked by magnesium shards from a shotgun round on the berm of a shooting range. Officials said firing that kind of “incendiary or tracer ammunition” was barred in the state. The majority of the blaze has been contained, officials reported Friday.
In Massachusetts, one wildfire among several fueled by powerful wind gusts and dry leaves has burned hundreds of acres in the Lynn Woods Reservation, a municipal park extending across about 3.4 square miles (8.8 square kilometers) in the city some 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Boston.
The Lynn Fire Department cited "a dry spell we have not seen during this time of year in many years.”
“We have had over 400 acres of the woods that have burned so far. We believe we have the fire contained using the main fire roads. We will maintain a presence to ensure the fire doesn’t spread further," Lynn Fire Chief Dan Sullivan said in a statement late Sunday.
He said windy and dry conditions “certainly made it challenging” even as he asked people to stay away from the burned-out areas. “There are far too many weakened trees, and we don’t want the public to get injured," he added.