New York parks employee dies fighting fires as air quality warnings issued in region

POMPTON LAKES, N.J. — A New York parks employee died battling one of a number of wildfires in New Jersey and New York amid dry conditions that have prompted air quality warnings in both states, authorities said Sunday.

The worker died when a tree fell on him Saturday afternoon as he battled a major brush fire along the New York-New Jersey border, according to reports from the Eastern Dutchess County Fire and Rescue and the New York state forestry services.

“Rip brother your shift is over job well done,” the New York State forestry services post said.

New York State Police said they were investigating the death amid the fire in Sterling Forest located in Greenwood Lake and identified the victim as Dariel Vasquez, an 18-year-old state Parks and Recreation aide employed by the New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Department.

The fires in New York and New Jersey come as firefighters are also battling a wildfire in California.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Forest Fire Service reported the sprawling blaze had spread to 10 square kilometers near the border in Passaic County’s West Milford and Orange County, New York. Officials said Sunday the blaze, dubbed the Jennings Creek wildfire, was now threatening 14 Greenwood Lake structures as well as two New Jersey homes and eight buildings in that state’s Long Pond Ironworks Historic District.

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.

New Jersey officials, meanwhile, reported 75 percent containment of a 70-hectare fire in the Pompton Lakes area of Passaic County that was threatening 55 homes, although no evacuations had been ordered.

Progress was also reported on fires in the Bethany Run area on the border of Burlington and Camden counties in Evesham and Voorhees townships; a blaze along the Palisades Interstate Parkway in Englewood Cliffs in Bergen County; and the Pheasant Run wildfire in the Glassboro wildlife protection area of Gloucester County.

Prosecutors in Ocean County on late Saturday afternoon announced arson and firearms charges in connection with a 142-hectare Jackson Township fire that started Wednesday. They said it 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 burned more than 81 hectares in the Lynn Woods Reservation, a municipal park that comprises about 8.8 square kilometers in the city 16 kilometers north of Boston.

“This is a dry spell we have not seen during this time of year in many years,” the Lynn Fire Department said in a statement on social media as firefighters continued to battle the blaze, blaming its intensely on low humidity as well as winds and dry leaves on the ground.

It was one of many brush fires that cropped up across the region. In Foxborough, fire crews said that containing a wildfire at the F. Gilbert Hills State Forest would be a “a multi-day event.”

Wind gusts topped 64 kph on Saturday, and less-powerful gusts continued Sunday.

Firefighters and forest agencies warned against outdoor burning.

The drier-than-normal weather is expected to continue, and virtually all of New England is categorized as being in drought or being abnormally dry. Most of the region was expected to see some light rain Sunday night, but there are no large rainfall events in the forecast, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jerry Combs.

Firefighters in California were also battling a scattering of blazes over the weekend, including one north of Los Angeles that had burned more than 100 structures.

Evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings for residents in several areas of Ventura County, where the Mountain Fire held at about 83 square kilometers and was 26% contained, authorities said.

By Associated Press