A wildfire that started Monday afternoon in southern New Jersey grew to 150 acres overnight but it hasn’t threatened structures or forced road closures in the area, officials said Tuesday morning.
The Fishers Pit Wildfire in Berkeley Township, Ocean County, was first spotted just before 5 p.m., according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
Initial attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful due to the “erratic” behavior of the fire, officials said. However, firefighters made some progress overnight, strengthening containment lines by setting up a “backfire and burnout” operation.
A backfire is a wildfire suppression technique that involves setting up small fires along the edges of an area to consume the fuel in the path of a wildfire, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In its late-morning update, the agency said that about 20% of the fire had been contained.
As of 10 a.m., firefighters continued to “reinforce containment lines and burn out pockets of unburned fuels inside the fire’s perimeter.”
Large plumes of smoke that were visible from the Garden State Parkway near Exit 77 didn’t prompt any road closures, officials said. Smoke impacts have “gradually decreased throughout the morning.”
The cause of the blaze, which is being battled by 31 firefighters using 11 engines and a bulldozer, remains under investigation.
With News Wire Services