BARNEGAT TOWNSHIP — A forest fire burned at least 1,200 acres of New Jersey Pinelands on Tuesday afternoon, closing a section of the Garden State Parkway, forcing the occupants of at least 16 homes to flee and tying traffic into knots in smoke-choked neighborhoods.
The blaze was burning west of Wells Mills Road and forced the closure of one of the state’s busiest highways between Barnegat and Lacey townships.
Shortly before 7 p.m., authorities extended a mandatory evacuation order to an unknown number of structures along or near Route 9 in Lacey Township.
No injuries had been reported as of 6 p.m., but the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said the blaze was not contained and was being battled by numerous crews on land and in the air.
“We saw a lot of smoke and ash coming down, a lot of it,” said Tyler Gonella, who was walking his dog Tanner on the shoreline of Wells Mills Park in Waretown early on during the blaze.
“It was covering the sun, and then it just kind of took over,” added his companion, Cheyenne Willey.
Authorities said 16 structures on or near Wells Mills Road were evacuated, but shortly before 6 p.m., no one had arrived at a designated evacuation center set up at a nearby Methodist church.
The Forest Fire Service planned a news conference at 8 p.m. to give an update on the fire.
Meanwhile, firefighters were working to contain the blaze in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area near the Ocean Township border. Crews were constructing new containment lines and reinforcing existing ones, the Forest Fire Service said. They also performed a backfiring operation to burn fuel in advance of the main body of fire.
The Forest Fire Service deployed fire engines, bulldozers and ground crews; as well as two helicopters, one capable of dropping 300 gallons of water and one for observation; and an air tanker capable of dropping 600 gallons of water.
Wells Mills Road was closed between Route 72 and the parkway. Bryant Road was closed between Wells Mills Road and Route 539. Jones Road was closed between Wells Mills and Bryant roads.
The site of the fire is near the Out of Sight alpaca farm. The farm said in a Facebook post the property wasn’t threatened and all of the animals were safe.
A forest fire in the Peaslee Wildlife Management Area has grown to 1,300 acres, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said Sunday evening.
It also was at least two or three miles from the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, where spent nuclear fuel is still stored on site.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
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