Shotgun Wildfire Reaches 350 Acres In Ocean County

Crime & Safety

Shotgun Wildfire Reaches 350 Acres In Ocean County The fire is continuing to burn in the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson, 1 of 3 wildfires burning south of Interstate 195.

JACKSON, NJ — A wildfire continues to burn for a third day in the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area but firefighters are gaining control, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said Friday.

The Shotgun Wildfire had consumed about 350 acres in the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area, the service said in an update Friday morning. That acreage was unchanged from a 6:30 p.m. update Thursday . It is now 80 percent contained, and there are no longer any structures considered threatened, the forest fire service said.

The "Shotgun" name comes from the fire's proximity to the Central Jersey Rifle and Pistol Club, on the west side of South Stump Tavern Road.

The fire is one of three burning south of Interstate 195 on Friday. A fire burning on the Evesham-Voorhees border in Burlington County was at 360 acres , and one burning in Glassboro in Gloucester County was at 133 acres .

New Jersey is under a red flag warning on Friday as conditions are ripe for wildfires with extreme drought conditions and windy conditions.

There had been 25 structures threatened and multiple homes evacuated when the fire off South Stump Tavern Road first was seen at 12:17 p.m. Wednesday, but those evacuations were lifted Wednesday night.

South Stump Tavern Road remains closed from Route 571, also known as Toms River Road, to Route 528, Veterans Highway. The fire was burning west of the road and had been prevented Wednesday from crossing to the east side, which had been one of the service's goals, Deale Carey, the forest fire service's incident commander and the area firewarden, said Wednesday evening.

As of Thursday evening, six homes on the west side of the road remain listed as threatened by the fire. They had been subject to mandatory evacuations but Carey said the forest fire service used bulldozers to create burn rings to protect them.

Efforts to complete the fireline needed to reach 100 percent containment continue, officials said. The fireline is dug into the soil to create a physical break along the forest floor between the fire and brush, leaves and twigs that would keep it burning.

Firefighters then set backfires inside the fireline to burn off fuel and stop the progress of a wildfire, the forest fire service says.

Smoke will continue to be thick in the area for a while because the area burning west of South Stump Tavern Road has not been touched by a fire since 1963, Carey said. That means there is lots of fuel — leaves, brush, dead branches, pine needles — to burn and send smoke billowing into the air.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.