Cause of Fire Sought

A wind-whipped fire that burned 1,300 acres of the Pinelands, forcing evacuations and damaging more than a dozen homes was contained Monday, authorities said. Evacuated residents returned to their homes, except for occupants of a house that was destroyed and two that were seriously damaged.

No other structures were in jeopardy, said James Dusha, section forest fire warden for the state Forest Fire Service. But he said the blaze may continue to smolder until a heavy rain. The state is under a drought emergency after the driest fall and winter on record.

"If we get a lot of rain in the next few days it could be out by Friday," Dusha said. "If we don't it could go on and on and on."

The cause has not been identified, said Thomas Kelaher, Ocean County prosecutor.

State officials have identified a 150-foot circle where they believe the fire started and surveyed the pattern of the fire from a helicopter to look for clues.

"It looks like a place where people have been, and in New Jersey most of our fires are caused by people. We're certainly not ruling it out," said Bert Plante, assistant division warden with the state Forest Fire Service.

As seen from a helicopter Monday, the fire continued to burn with flames reaching 50 feet high in some areas, and gray smoke washed over much of Berkeley Township and the Garden State Parkway.

Officials reopened a 24-mile stretch of the parkway early Monday after it had been closed for nearly 12 hours. There was no damage to the highway, but traffic continued to move slowly because of smoke.

Signs at toll plazas warned motorists to use caution.

Classes were canceled at some schools, but most local roads had re-opened.

The fire damaged 12 homes and destroyed one, about 50 miles north of Atlantic City.

Damage was estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars, but New Jersey officials will receive a federal grant to help pay the costs.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved the state's application to recover costs over $428,000, but the final tally will likely be much more, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine said.

Up to 200 homes could have been destroyed without the good work of fire fighters, according to Charles Bunnell, chief of the Bayville volunteer fire company.

All that was left of the destroyed home was the foundation. The owners, who neighbors identified as mother and son, asked reporters to stay off the property as they surveyed the damage. One house to the north had minimal damage; on the other side, a house stood untouched by the wind-whipped flames.

Grateful that they didn't lose everything, residents whose homes had been in jeopardy Sunday night returned home Monday, counting their blessings.

An overturned patio table in front of one house said it all. In a handwritten message to firefighters on the table top, homeowner Mark Giles wrote "Thank you for saving our house + neighborhood."

Roberto Pared, 40, packed his wife, three children and 74-year-old mother-in-law into the car when they were evacuated Sunday afternoon. They spent the night squeezed into a hotel room on Route 9.

"Granny got the bed," said his wife, Noemy, 31.

The family brought with them clothing, business records and 10 pounds of steak and pork chops they had just bought that day and didn't want left to rot in the house after the electricity was turned off.

The family returned Monday and found the house still standing. "I thought I was never going to see it again," Roberto Pared said.

The blaze started around 1 p.m. Sunday near a cranberry bog in the northeast corner of the Pinelands, a 1.1 million-acre forest, said Horace Somes, division fire warden for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.

A state forest fire crewman and three Berkeley firefighters were treated for minor injuries at Community Medical Center in Toms River.

An April 1995 fire in the same region burned 20,000 acres. The worst forest fires in modern New Jersey history occurred in April 1963 when a series of them burned more than 190,000 acres, killing seven people and consuming 186 homes and 191 outbuildings.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: 6 ABC-AP