Crews battling 2 wildfires in New Jersey, where conditions are driest in nearly 120 years

JACKSON, N.J. -- A forest fire in a Philadelphia suburb was threatening homes Thursday in what officials called the driest conditions in nearly 120 years.

Another fire about an hour away in Jackson Township was less than half contained when the blaze broke out in Evesham, threatening 50 homes, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said. It could not immediately give a size estimate for the Evesham blaze.

“This is the driest we've been in the agency's history,” said Jeremy Webber, a supervising fire warden with the Fire Service, which was established in 1906.

Lack of significant rainfall since August contributed to the dry conditions, which prompted the state to impose strict restrictions on outdoor fires.

Details about the Evesham fire were scarce Thursday morning, as the fire had only recently been reported. The fire service said the 50 threatened homes have not needed to be evacuated yet.

The fire in Jackson, in the central portion of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, had grown to less than half a square mile (1.2 square kilometers) and was 40% contained as of mid-morning Thursday, said Deale Carey, incident commander for the fire service.

He said conditions were so dry that new spot fires were continuously breaking out as wind-blown leaves fall onto burning or smoldering areas.

About 25 homes were evacuated near the Jackson fire, although residents were permitted to return Wednesday night.

Joann Bertone lives near that fire, and described animal and horse owners scrambling to arrange trailers to carry them to safety.

“It was extremely scary,” she said. “I was up all night. It was nerve-wracking.”

The causes of both fires remain under investigation.

Dry conditions have helped spark many wildfires in New Jersey in recent weeks. Since Nov. 1 the state has seen 102 forest or wildfires that burned less than a square mile (less than 2 square kilometers), the fire service said. The state has not seen significant rain in over a month, and that trend was expected to continue for at least the next few days.

Not even some promised rain Sunday night into Monday was expected to make much of a difference, Webber said.

“We're going to need inches of rain, not just one or two,” he said.

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