19-year-old charged in connection with massive New Jersey wildfire
A 19-year-old from Ocean Township, New Jersey, is accused of starting a massive wildfire that prompted thousands of evacuations, burned around 15,000 acres and destroyed a commercial building.
Joseph Kling was arrested and charged with aggravated arson and arson, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Thursday. The fire, named the Jones Road Wildfire, erupted Tuesday in Waretown and has spread throughout the southern Ocean County area.
Prosecutors accused Kling of setting wooden pallets on fire and then leaving the area without ensuring that the fire was fully extinguished.
As of Thursday morning, it was 50% contained. There have been no reports of deaths or loss of homes.
The Cedar Bridge Fire Tower located a plume of smoke coming from the area of Jones Road and Bryant Road in Ocean Township just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Emergency personnel observed a fire within the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust's Forked River Mountains Wilderness Area.
The cause of the fire was determined to be incendiary by an improperly extinguished bonfire, the prosecutor's office said in a news release.
Kling is being held at the Ocean County jail pending a detention hearing.
The inferno has burned about 15,000 acres in Ocean and Lacey Townships, New Jersey Forest Fire Service said Thursday morning in an update on Facebook. Eight structures have been threatened, and one commercial building was destroyed.
About 5,000 residents were evacuated, but evacuations have since been lifted.
On Wednesday, acting New Jersey Gov. Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency. Fire officials and Shawn M. LaTourette, state commissioner of environmental protection, have said that the fire is expected to burn for a couple more days.
LaTourette said it could end up being the biggest wildfire in the state in 20 years.
"Thanks to the incredible, heroic work of the good men and women of our New Jersey Forest Fire Service, folks' homes and lives have been saved and we've truly averted a major disaster," he said Wednesday. "Now, this wildfire is not under full and complete control. We still have a lot of work to do to achieve complete containment of the wildfire."
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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