Evacuation orders lifted as fast-moving New Jersey wildfire burns

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BARNEGAT TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A fast-moving wildfire was burning in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, but officials on Wednesday lifted earlier evacuation orders and a stretch of a major highway that was closed due to the blaze has reopened.

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More than 1,300 structures were threatened and about 3,000 residents had been evacuated, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said. Officials said Wednesday morning that evacuation orders were lifted. Shelters were open at two high schools, according to the Barnegat Police Department.

The Garden State Parkway, one of New Jersey’s busiest highways, reopened Wednesday morning after officials closed a roughly 7-mile (12-kilometer) stretch in the southern part of the state.

The fire service planned to give an update at a news conference late Wednesday morning. Video released by the state agency overseeing the fire service showed billowing white and black clouds of smoke, intense flames engulfing pines and firefighters dousing a charred structure.

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Forest fires are a common occurrence in the Pine Barrens, a 1.1 million-acre (445,000-hectare) state and federally protected reserve about the size of the Grand Canyon lying halfway between Philadelphia to the west and the Atlantic coast to the east.

The area had been under a severe drought until recently, when early spring rains helped dampen the region.

The Jersey Central Power and Light Company cut power to about 25,000 customers at the request of the Forest Fire Service and the wildfire’s command post Tuesday evening, including thousands in Barnegat Township. The company said on X that it doesn’t expect to restore the power before Wednesday.

“This is for the safety of crews battling the fire,” the company said.

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The fire in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area burned more than 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) of land, fire officials said.

The blaze, burning in Ocean and Lacey Townships in Ocean County, was only about 10% contained Tuesday night, the fire service said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Debi Schaffer was caught in gridlocked traffic after evacuating with her two dogs while her husband agreed to stay with their 22 chickens, The Press of Atlantic City reported.

“I wanted to take them in the car with me; can you imagine 22 chickens in a car?” she told the newspaper.

Around her Waretown house it was “like a war zone,” she said, describing smoke, sirens and the buzz of helicopters.

The site of the fire is near an alpaca farm. The farm said in a Facebook post that the property wasn’t threatened and all of the animals were safe.

The blaze is the second major forest fire in the region in less than a week.

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