A wildfire that started Monday afternoon in southern New Jersey grew to 150 hectares overnight but it has not threatened structures or forced road closures in the area, officials said Tuesday morning.
The The Fishers Pit Wildfire in Berkeley Township, Ocean Countywas first spotted just before 5 PM, according to the New Jersey School District Service.
Initial efforts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful due to the fire’s “erratic” behavior, officials said. However, firefighters made some progress overnight and strengthened containment lines by setting up a “backfire and burnout” operation.
A backfire is a fire suppression technique that involves setting small fires along the edges of an area to consume the fuel in the path of a wildfire, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
In its morning update, the agency said about 20% of the fire had been extinguished.
As of 10 a.m., firefighters continued to “reinforce containment lines and burn out pockets of unburned fuel within the perimeter of the fire.”
Large plumes of smoke visible from the Garden State Parkway near Exit 77 did not prompt any road closures, officials said. The smoke impact has “gradually decreased during the morning.”
The cause of the fire, which is fought by 31 firefighters use 11 engines and a bulldozeris still under investigation.
With News Wire Services