New Jersey's fall wildfire season is off to an early start. Here's why it's expected to be another active year.
The fall wildfire season is off to an early start in New Jersey with the ignition of the Buckabear Wildfire last Wednesday.
The New Jersey Forest Fire Service says a typical fall fire season runs from mid-October until Thanksgiving, but this year is already a month ahead of schedule.
Abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions persist across northern New Jersey, and Smokey the Bear declared the fire risk "high" on Tuesday.
"We are looking at probably an average-to-above-average fire season this fall," New Jersey Forest Fire Service Assistant Division Fire Warden Christopher Franek said.
He said boots on the ground data coming in suggests preparing for the worst.
"We are preparing ourselves for fires and events similar to what happened last year," he said, adding, "We are are posturing ourselves with more personnel out there in the field, some more equipment are being staffed... more awareness."
Franek said they dubbed last year the "Siege of 2024," when the Jennings Creek Wildfire burned roughly 5,200 acres across New York and New Jersey -- just one of the hundreds of fires battled in the Garden State in 2024.
Signs of life after Jennings Creek Wildfire
Flames towered above treetops and threatened homes as extreme drought and powerful winds fueled the Jennings Creek Wildfire last November.
"I'll do anything to save my life and my house, within reason," Greenwood Lake resident Paul Maloney told CBS News New York's Vanessa Murdock at the time.
His efforts, along with the bravery of firefighters from across the country, spared his home from the blaze, but not his backyard.
"Everything was just black, smelled of charcoal, you couldn't breathe," Maloney says now.
He said it remained unchanged for months, but Mother Nature went to work in May, and the barren landscape sprouted with green.
"It felt alive again, you sort of felt like there is life after tragedy."
