A 17-year-old boy is accused of helping start a massive wildfire in Ocean County, New Jersey, that burned thousands of acres and triggered the evacuations of 5,000, officials said.
The teenager, whose identity officials did not reveal, was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with aggravated arson, arson, and hindering apprehension, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. The 17-year-old is the second person to be arrested in connection with the fire, which broke out last Tuesday and has been coined the Jones Road Wildfire.
Last week, 19-year-old Joseph Kling was also arrested and charged with arson in the third degree and aggravated arson in the second degree. He has also since been charged with hindering apprehension, the prosecutor's office said. Kling is scheduled to appear in superior court for the first time Friday afternoon, though details about the hearing are not immediately available.
Prosecutors accuse Kling and the 17-year-old of setting wooden pallets on fire near Jones Road and Bryant Road in Waretown before leaving the area without fully extinguishing the fire. The Cedar Bridge Fire Tower spotted smoke coming from the location last Tuesday morning, and investigators determined that the cause of the fire was "an improperly extinguished bonfire."
Prosecutors said that as of Monday, the fire had burned approximately 15,300 acres in Waretown and Lacey townships and destroyed a commercial building. A spokesperson for the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection told NBC News on Thursday that the Jones Road Wildfire was about 80 percent contained.
Both teenagers are also accused of giving law enforcement false information as to how the fire started, which prompted the hindering apprehension charge.
According to the prosecutor's office, the 17-year-old is being held at the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center. Kling was at the Ocean County Jail ahead of his detention hearing.
It is not clear if the teenager is being represented by an attorney at this time. An attorney for Kling did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
