Firefighters battle winds in Pinelands blaze

A three-mile stretch of Route 70 in Burlington County was shut down Saturday as firefighting aircraft and ground crews battled fierce winds to fight a forest fire that had consumed about 250 acres near a housing development.

The fire, which broke out in the Pinelands around 1 p.m. between the Country Lake Estates development and Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, was about 30 percent contained Saturday evening, said Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, which was leading the effort to contain the blaze.

"We're experiencing 30-, 40-mile-per-hour wind gusts," said Hajna. "It's howling out there."

The fire was expected to spread during the night, reaching perhaps 350 acres, he said. But containment lines were being established to try to keep the fire from breaking through.

No residents were reported injured, and none was evacuated Saturday. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Route 70 was closed for three miles just west of Ocean County. No structures were in imminent danger, Hajna said.

"The New Jersey State Forest Fire Service is being supported by maybe 10 or 15 volunteer fire companies," said Hajna, of the state Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the firefighting forestry division.

The fire appeared to be burning to the east of the densely wooded Country Lake Estates.

But because winds were blowing east, Hajna said, houses to the west did not appear immediately threatened.

To fight the fire, he said, a Jet Ranger observation helicopter joined four water-dousing aircraft: two air tractors, a biplane, and a helicopter. The aircraft were grounded later in the day because of the wind.

Susan Scull, who lives about a mile from the fire on a dirt lane, Mount Misery Road, off Route 70, said her nephew could see signs of the encroaching blaze from their home, which, like many houses in the area, is tucked into the thick woods.

"He says he can smell smoke, and he can see smoke coming through the woods," said Scull, who was on her way home after putting in a shift at a supermarket job when she was interviewed at Buy-Rite Country Lakes Liquors on Lakehurst Road in Browns Mills.

"It's so windy here, you know, we're supposed to get 60-mile-an-hour winds," said Scull, eager to get home and gauge the situation. "I don't know how fast it's going to travel."

A second, smaller forest fire, in Camden County, was contained earlier in the day after charring about 25 acres in Wharton State Forest, officials said.