Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J. – A rainstorm Wednesday night helped firefighters make significant progress against a blaze that apparently began when a military jet dropped a flare on a bombing range.
The thunderstorm rolled into the region in the early evening. When it was over, the fire had been 70 percent contained.
“We now believe we have turned the corner,” said Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The fire, which began Tuesday, sent walls of flames 80 to 100 feet high racing toward senior-citizen communities. Elderly residents grabbed their pets and fled.
No deaths or injuries had been attributed to the fire, but at least 13 homes were damaged or destroyed. About 6,000 people were evacuated from 2,500 homes.
“I didn’t grab anything but the cat and myself, and we scrammed,” said Helen Sura, who spent a sleepless night with her pet, aptly named Smoky, in a Burger King parking lot.
Lt. Col. James Garcia, a spokesman for the New Jersey Air National Guard, said the fire was believed to have started Tuesday afternoon with a flare dropped from an F-16 fighter jet. An investigation continued, he said.
Along the Florida-Georgia state line, firefighters were making progress against a blaze that had charred 390 square miles across the two states and forced the evacuation of more than 700 homes. Calm air Wednesday allowed firefighters to strengthen their containment lines, officials said.
In Payson, Ariz., as many as 50 people were asked to evacuate after winds pushed a 1-square-mile wildfire closer to homes.
In northern Minnesota, some residents chased from their homes by a forest fire on the Gunflint Trail were told they could return. The fire has burned more than 117 square miles of Minnesota and Canada; 61 homes have been destroyed.
