A 19-year-old man faces arson charges for New Jersey wildfire, officials say

CNN

By Taylor Romine, Taylor Ward, Mary Gilbert and Dakin Andone, CNN

(CNN) — A 19-year-old man has been arrested on arson charges in connection with a southern New Jersey wildfire that has scorched more than 15,000 acres, prompted about 5,000 evacuations and briefly shut down part of the Garden State Parkway, officials said.

Joseph Kling faces charges of aggravated arson and arson after a multi-agency investigation determined the fire was caused “by an improperly extinguished bonfire,” according to a joint statement Thursday from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Kling was allegedly responsible for setting wooden pallets on fire, then leaving the scene before the fire was fully extinguished.

Kling is currently being held in the Ocean County Jail pending a detention hearing, the release said. CNN has reached out to the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender to determine whether he has legal representation.

The fire started inside the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area in Ocean County Tuesday morning and was 50% contained as of Thursday morning, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said. A damage assessment is underway.

Acting New Jersey Gov. Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency for Ocean County Wednesday morning. “At this time, we have no loss of life and no homes have been harmed,” Way said on X.

“We’ve truly averted a major disaster,” Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said during a news conference Wednesday, praising the efforts of firefighting crews. “We still have a lot of work to do to achieve complete containment of the wildfire,” he added.

The fire is expected to grow even as firefighters make progress on containment. “This could very well end up being the largest wildfire in New Jersey in 20 years,” LaTourette said.

Despite its large size, the fire destroyed a single commercial building in Ocean County and torched some nearby outbuildings and vehicles, but no homes were harmed, according to LaTourette.

Mandatory evacuation orders were in effect Tuesday for parts of Lacey and Ocean townships and were rescinded Wednesday morning as conditions improved, Donna Flynn, Ocean County Public Information Director, told CNN. Approximately 5,000 people evacuated in the area, according to Lacey Mayor Peter Curatolo.

The portion of the Garden State Parkway, a main artery in the state, that was closed Tuesday reopened early Wednesday morning, according to county officials.

“Our plan is to get people back home, get roads reopened and knock that smoke down,” Trevor Raynor, a division forest fire warden, told reporters Wednesday.

Some power lines were proactively de-energized near the fire Tuesday evening at the request of the state’s forest fire service, affecting about 25,000 customers, according to Jersey Central Power and Light. Power had returned to all impacted homes and businesses as of Wednesday evening, according to the company.

Thick, black clouds filled the sky Tuesday, prompting a public health advisory in the county as air quality worsened. Some buildings appear to have already been burnt as firefighters work to protect structures, aerials from CNN affiliate WPVI show.

The smoke wasn’t too bad at first, Giana Nicholas told CNN affiliate News 12 New Jersey, but it quickly escalated and forced her family to evacuate.

“Eventually as the night went on, smoke flooded the streets,” she said.

The fire comes as New Jersey is under an official drought warning, with “well-below average precipitation throughout the winter,” the state said in a news release last month. Approximately 7,000 acres of New Jersey’s forests are burnt each year, with Tuesday’s fire surpassing the yearly average.

While wildfires aren’t as common as in other areas of the country, the region is no stranger to the phenomenon. The Jennings Creek Fire burned several thousand acres in New Jersey and New York in November, prompting heavy response from both states.

Winds Tuesday afternoon consistently gusted between 15 and 25 mph. Dry weather is expected for the remainder of the week, but light winds of 5 to 10 mph should help fire crews make progress on containment. Showers will arrive late Friday night and continue through much of Saturday.

“We should have the fire contained by the weekend as long as we get the precipitation that’s forecasted,” said Bill Donnelly, chief of the state’s forest fire service, during Wednesday’s news conference.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Dalia Faheid, Christine Sever and Julianna Bragg contributed to this report.

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