The wildfires in southern New Jersey have more than tripled since Sunday night and reached at least 7,200 acres, according to local officials.
Firefighters and environmental officials continued to fight the blaze, which engulfed half of Manhattan Island in Warton County on Monday morning, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, which has been running for more than 24 hours. The flame was first reported by the agency.
The blaze was burning in four southern provinces – Washington, Shamon, Hammonton and Mulica – and 45 percent of the fire was contained, compared to 20 percent on Sunday night.
According to a recent update, the fire service has not been harmed and relevant agencies are seeking to protect at least 18 vulnerable structures.
The evictions took place at the Lakes Lake Camp, where many cycling and hiking trails were closed in the region, as well as recreational roads in and around the village of Batso, Mlica River Camp, Lower Ford Camp, Mulica River Trail, and boats on the Mulica River. ABC 6 News reports that they are closed.
“Structural protection is provided on site and by volunteer firefighters from the Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean regions,” he said in a statement on social media.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but officials said in a recent update that wildfires were raging in southern New Jersey in a “dry and windy state”.
Forest fires in southern New Jersey are 45 percent contained until Monday morning, officials say.
(CBS Filly / Video Screen Copy)
Video footage from local ABC 6 news shows smoke billowing from the jungle, the largest single in the New Jersey State Park system in the Wartton State Forest.
About 123,000 acres[123,000 ha]are located in the pine oceans of the Atlantic Ocean. The northeast now stretches from North Carolina to Canada and into the Atlantic.
Officials fighting the blaze have not yet commented on the cause of the blaze, but said it was becoming increasingly difficult to control the situation on the east coast.
According to a study published in the journal Science Advances, fires have tripled in some parts of the US, and in the 2000s, wildfires have quadrupled on average four times over the past decade. In that study, scientists attributed the changes to droughts, human-caused climate change in many areas, and 84 percent of the fires were caused by humans.