Wildfire Grows in New Jersey and New York, Despite Modest Rainfall
The New York Times
The Jennings Creek fire is currently burning across 3,500 acres, officials said, and is expected to grow to over 5,000 acres.
A wildfire consuming a vast stretch of hilly forest along the New York-New Jersey border continued to grow on Monday despite the first significant rainfall in nearly six weeks, fire officials said. Bone-dry weather and gusts of up to 40 miles per hour are expected to sweep through the region on Tuesday, raising the risk that the fire will continue to spread.
More than 3,500 acres were burning in New Jersey and New York as of Monday night, and the fire was expected to grow to more than 5,000 acres, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said.
About 20 percent of the New Jersey portion of the fire was contained, according to the state’s Forest Fire Service. It was not clear how much of the New York portion of the fire was contained.
The rain on Sunday night, measuring just a quarter of an inch across the region, only temporarily slowed the fire’s growth, said Christopher Franek, an assistant division fire warden for the Forest Fire Service.
“We’re throwing everything we’ve got at it,” he said. “A lot of manual labor is choking on smoke and dust.” Five thousand acres is nearly eight square miles — about a third the size of Manhattan.
Hundreds of firefighters from dozens of fire departments in both states are battling the blaze in a rugged patch of Passaic County in New Jersey and Orange County in New York near the Appalachian Trail.
Thomas Donlon wants the job of police commissioner permanently, and he’s been acting as though he has it as he navigates friction and uncertainty.
Mr. Homan, a senior immigration official in the last Trump administration, has said that workplace raids would restart under the new government.
Jeremiah P. Mahoney had been missing in action since 1945. His remains will be interred in Arlington National Cemetery in 2025.
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s momentary talk of unity on election night may underestimate the depth of his resentment after multiple impeachments, investigations, indictments and lawsuits.
The fire, the latest of several in the region over the weekend, had caused one death and was not contained as of Sunday afternoon, officials said.
After the Mountain fire ballooned to more than 20,000 acres in less than 24 hours, improving weather conditions helped crews contain more of the blaze on Saturday.
Would Donald J. Trump come to the aid of Mayor Eric Adams of New York, an embattled Democrat indicted on federal corruption charges?
Ukrainian officials expect a counteroffensive in western Russia to begin in the coming days as North Korea’s troops train with Russian forces.
Nearly eight years after the first challenges to his immigration policies, Donald Trump is returning to the White House promising a more aggressive crackdown.
The vice president vacillated on how to talk about the economy, and ended up adopting marginal pro-business tweaks that both corporate and progressive allies agreed made for a muddled message.
Mayor Eric Adams of New York City has vowed to prevent mass deportations, but migrants and immigration lawyers are preparing for them.