New York and New Jersey are entering peak wildfire season — a particular concern around the forests of the Garden State, where things are windy, dry and more exposed than state forest fire officials would like. They say spring’s beginning amid drought conditions, with mitigation work hampered by winter’s heavy snows.
New Jersey’s peak wildfire season runs between mid-March and mid-May, when the weather is typically dry and windy. Most trees won’t have their leaves fully out, allowing more sunlight to reach the forest floor. That means any rain that does fall dries out quickly.
“ The potential is certainly there to have quite a busy fire season,” said Bill Donnelly, New Jersey’s state forest fire warden. “But most of that we won't know until it's over.”
The state has already logged its first major wildfire of the year: the 160-acre Sunoco Fire, which burned near industrial and residential areas of West Deptford in South Jersey on Saturday. That fire threatened 100 structures and led to voluntary evacuations. Firefighters were able to fully contain it within a matter of hours.
It’s one of more than 200 fires the New Jersey Forest Fire Service has responded to already this year.
“ We're prepared every day,” Donnelly said. “This time of year is our spring fire season, and we're definitely ready depending on what happens.”
This year, drought conditions across all of New Jersey are raising the risk. The entire state is rated as at least abnormally dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, with much of the forested northwest corner of the state in moderate drought. A large part of South Jersey along the Delaware River, plus a portion along Delaware Bay, is also in moderate drought.
The dry conditions have been lingering for months. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued a drought warning for the entire state in December, and that remains in place today. State officials have cycled the state between drought warnings and drought watches since late 2024.
Dave Robinson, New Jersey’s state climatologist, said recent rains in North Jersey have helped the situation a bit.
“ We're better off than we were several months ago, but we're not out of the woods at this point,” Robinson said.
New York is faring better, though all of the Hudson Valley and Long Island are considered abnormally dry.
The pine barrens of South Jersey are the heart of New Jersey’s fire risk, but North Jersey is prone to major fires as well. Severe drought conditions in late 2024 fueled the Jennings Creek wildfire near Greenwood Lake, which burned more than 5,000 acres across New Jersey and New York.
Climate change is an increasing wildfire threat throughout the year in both New Jersey and New York. Climate Central, a nonprofit research group based in Princeton, found there are now 10 more days each year with weather creating an elevated wildfire risk in North Jersey and coastal New York compared to 50 years ago.
New Jersey authorities try to reduce wildfire risk each winter by using prescribed burns to clear out the underbrush that feeds wildfire in a controlled manner. The state Forest Fire Service sets a goal to burn 25,000 acres each year.
This year, the work was hampered by heavy snow for weeks; only about 8,600 acres of prescribed burns had been conducted as of last week.
The state has taken other steps to prepare for wildfire season. Last month, a new 133-foot-tall fire tower opened in Jackson Township, which enhances the forest fire service’s ability to monitor 200,000 homes across Monmouth and Ocean counties. It’s the first new fire tower in the state in nearly 80 years.
“That's going to serve really well to help us build our initial attack and early response capabilities,” said Greg McLaughlin, the forest and natural lands administrator for the Department of Environmental Protection.
There’s also been a focus on clearing fire breaks in forested areas.
Last year was very active for wildfires, with 1,322 reported in the Garden State. That includes the 15,000-acre Jones Road fire almost a year ago, which forced 7,000 people to evacuate their homes in Ocean County.
The day that the fire started began with marginal wildfire risk in the morning, Donnelly said, but the weather quickly shifted and the risk level became exceptional.
“That's a reminder that conditions can change quickly despite the snow we had over the winter,” Donnelly said. “The forest remains dry and the risk is real. Ultimately, Mother Nature will have the final say.”
In New York, state Forest Rangers responded to 202 wildfires in 2025.
Officials urge residents to follow any local burning restrictions and be careful when handling any fire at home. People who live in wooded areas or in places that border forests should keep vegetation away from their homes and follow Firewise best practices for maintaining their property.
“What we do with fireplace ashes, how we're maintaining the vegetation around our houses, all can matter greatly,” said John Cecil, the Department of Environmental Protection’s assistant commissioner for state parks, forests and historic sites.
“Changes in conditions, while we're getting beautiful days and cool nights, can present some challenges in those ways. So I think just for everybody to be mindful of that could be very helpful to our wildfire response and our firefighters.”
