POMPTON LAKES, N.J. — A New York parks worker died battling one among a lot of wildfires in New Jersey and New York amid dry circumstances which have prompted air-quality warnings in each states, authorities mentioned Sunday.
The employee died when a tree fell on him Saturday afternoon as he battled a serious brush fireplace alongside the New York-New Jersey border, in line with reviews from the Jap Dutchess County Hearth and Rescue and the New York state forestry companies.
New York State Police mentioned they had been investigating the demise amid the fireplace in Sterling Forest positioned in Greenwood Lake. They recognized the sufferer as Dariel Vasquez, an 18-year-old aide employed by the New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Division.
The fires in New York and New Jersey come as firefighters are additionally battling a wildfire in California.
The New Jersey Division of Environmental Safety’s Forest Hearth Service reported the sprawling blaze had unfold to three.9 sq. miles close to the border in Passaic County’s West Milford and Orange County, N.Y. Officers mentioned Sunday that the blaze, dubbed the Jennings Creek Hearth, was now threatening 14 Greenwood Lake buildings in addition to two New Jersey houses and eight buildings in that state’s Lengthy Pond Ironworks Historic District.
Well being advisories had been issued for elements of New York, together with New York Metropolis, and Northeastern New Jersey attributable to smoke from the fires. Folks had been urged to restrict strenuous out of doors bodily exercise if potential; these particularly delicate included the very younger and really outdated and folks with illnesses equivalent to bronchial asthma and coronary heart illness.
New Jersey officers, in the meantime, reported 75 p.c containment of a 175-acre fireplace within the Pompton Lakes space of Passaic County that was threatening 55 houses, though no evacuations had been ordered.
Progress was additionally reported on fires within the Bethany Run space on the border of Burlington and Camden counties in Evesham and Voorhees townships.