Tri-State and NE Besieged by Wildfires, Air Quality Health Advisory for NYC

New York City is under an air quality alert and red flag warning, after a fire broke out in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park last night, which has since been contained, and another across the Hudson in New Jersey broke out earlier today and remains uncontained.

An air quality health advisory remains in place for New York City. Those with heart or lung disease, older adults and young children are advised to limit outdoor exposure.

The brush fire in Prospect Park broke out Friday night, and was reported to the FDNY by a passerby at around 6:40, according to FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker. Speaking at a news conference later that night, Tucker said that the “fire’s under control,” and that it occurred in a dense area, far away from where people generally congregate and posed no risk to any structures in the park. Two acres were ultimately consumed in the blaze.

Meanwhile, other fires continue to burn in New Jersey’s Pompton Lakes and Englewood Cliffs, according to the state’s Forest Fire Service. The Pompton Lakes fire is 0% contained as of this reporting, having burned over 100 acres and threatening 55 structures locally. The Englewood Cliffs fire has burned 39 acres and is reported to be 40% contained. The Forest Service has declared that the entire state is under extreme fire danger.

Fires have also been reported across the state in Evesham and Voorhees townships, Jackson Township, and Glassboro. Elsewhere in New York, a fire is also being contained in Riverhead, Long Island.

These fires in the tri-state area are the most proximate cause for the air quality alert across the New York City right now, as the island of Manhattan has been blanketed with visible haze and a burning smell in the air, but the problem is far from a local one. This past week has seen fires igniting all over the Northeast, with 27 million people from New York to Massachusetts under fire alerts as of Saturday afternoon.