POMPTON LAKES, N.J. — A New York parks employee died battling one of a number of wildfires in New Jersey and New York amid dry conditions that have prompted air-quality warnings in both states, authorities said Sunday.
The worker died when a tree fell on him Saturday afternoon as he battled a major brush fire along the New York-New Jersey border, according to reports from the Eastern Dutchess County Fire and Rescue and the New York state forestry services.
New York State Police said they were investigating the death amid the fire in Sterling Forest located in Greenwood Lake. They identified the victim as Dariel Vasquez, an 18-year-old aide employed by the New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Department.
The fires in New York and New Jersey come as firefighters are also battling a wildfire in California.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Forest Fire Service reported the sprawling blaze had spread to 3.9 square miles near the border in Passaic County’s West Milford and Orange County, N.Y. Officials said Sunday that the blaze, dubbed the Jennings Creek Fire, was now threatening 14 Greenwood Lake structures as well as two New Jersey homes and eight buildings in that state’s Long Pond Ironworks Historic District.
Health advisories were issued for parts of New York, including New York City, and Northeastern New Jersey due to smoke from the fires. People were urged to limit strenuous outdoor physical activity if possible; those especially sensitive included the very young and very old and people with ailments such as asthma and heart disease.
New Jersey officials, meanwhile, reported 75 percent containment of a 175-acre fire in the Pompton Lakes area of Passaic County that was threatening 55 homes, although no evacuations had been ordered.
Progress was also reported on fires in the Bethany Run area on the border of Burlington and Camden counties in Evesham and Voorhees townships.
