An 18-year-old New York state employee was killed Saturday battling a wildfire in Orange County's Sterling Forest.
Dariel Vasquez, an aid working for the New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Department, was helping mitigate the forest fire when he was killed, state police said in a statement. Police are investigating.
“I am deeply saddened by the passing of one of our New York State Parks employees while responding to a wildfire in Orange County yesterday,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Sunday. “My prayers go out to his family, friends and coworkers during this difficult time.”
Wildfires continued to rage Sunday evening amid warm, dry conditions across the Northeast, where 11 million people had been under fire alerts, some of which began to expire early Sunday evening amid an approaching front expected to produce light rain. Regions expected to see overnight rain included New York City, the Lower Hudson Valley and the New York-New Jersey Highlands, forecasters said.
In New York state, 60 wildfires have erupted since Oct. 1, consuming over 2,100 acres, Jeremy Oldroyd, a state forest ranger, said Sunday afternoon.
Multiple fires are burning in Orange County, New York, where County Executive Steve Neuhaus spoke amid a backdrop of overhead-height flames late Sunday afternoon.
"The situation has gotten a lot more difficult," he said in a video update posted to the county's Facebook page. "This was not on fire a half-hour ago."
Neuhaus said he's requested state resources and that he's been in touch with federal officials about the situation in the Village of Greenwood Lake, where he stood Sunday, in the New York-New Jersey Highlands about 55 miles north of New York City.
The village is part of the Town of Warwick, which said in a statement that voluntary evacuations were in effect for residents along one road, power was shut off as a precaution during a prescribed burn, and another key road was restricted to a single lane for residents.
"The Fire Service continues to work with local fire agencies to proactively burn all of the undergrowth" in an effort to stop the Sterling Forest Fire from jumping a road, it said.
The blaze was also affecting Passaic County, New Jersey — where it has been dubbed the Jennings Creek Wildfire, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. The fire has spread to 3,000 acres and was 10% contained as of Sunday evening. Its cause is under investigation.
The service said Sunday that 25 structures were threatened by the blaze after dark.
New Jersey Forest Fire Service Chief Bill Donnelly said the fire is expected to continue burning until it reaches the control line, a barrier used to stop the spread of the flames.
"So we may not actually get this done today, possibly not even tomorrow, but hopefully by the end of the week we can secure our control lines and make sure the fire stays where we want it to," Donnelly said Sunday afternoon.
There was good news elsewhere in Passaic County, where another blaze, the 181-acre Cannonball 3 Wildfire, was 100% contained Sunday night, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said in a statement. Its cause is also under investigation.
A man was arrested and accused of starting a fire in Jackson Township, New Jersey, the forest fire service said in a news release. The man is alleged to have fired ammunition from a shotgun, igniting the fire behind a berm near a rifle club. He was charged with arson and violation of the regulatory provisions relating to firearms.
Since Oct. 1, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service has responded to 537 wildfires in the state that have consumed 4,500 acres, Donnelly said.
A smoke-triggered air quality alert was in effect for New York state's Orange and Putnam counties through midnight Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. An air quality health advisory was issued Sunday for metropolitan New York City and the lower and upper Hudson Valley regions because of pollution levels potentially exceeding an Air Quality Index value of 100.
In Massachusetts, a brush fire was burning in Lynn Woods Reservation, a forest park in Essex County. The park is closed to the public until further notice, the city of Lynn said on X.
Drone video from the park shows smoke rising from a raging fire.
“Falling trees, air quality, and the threat of additional fires continue to pose significant dangers to the public,” the city said.
Showers were forecast to move into the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic on Sunday evening and overnight. Rainfall totals will be relatively light, from one-half to 1 inch.
Still, the National Weather Service forecast for Orange County, New York, expected the moisture to help combat the fires.
"Ongoing brush fires ... should get mitigated to some degree with a wetting rain overnight," it said in a forecast discussion Sunday.
The forecast rain is likely to break the record streak of consecutive dry days in Philadelphia. The current streak is 42 days, shattering the previous record of 29 set in 1874.
