That large brush fire burning near MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands yesterday consumed over one hundred acres, with flames leaping as high as 20 feet and spewing smoke visible as far as Brooklyn and Queens. Officials shut down part of the New Jersey turnpike for almost an hour as firefighters battled the blaze, which also dumped considerable ash on Brooklyn. In DUMBO, black ash was seen falling across the neighborhood, and one observer tells us, "It was flying down near the Watchtower. It looked like a black twig, and when I stepped on it, it disintegrated!"
There were no injuries reported in the blaze, and the cause is still unknown. Carlstadt Deputy Fire Chief Rob Popejoy tells the Star-Ledger, "We got to the scene and it got pretty big, pretty fast." Due to a lack of rain, many parts of the Northeast are dry and prone to fires. In New Jersey, 165 fires have been reported in the past 11 days, and nearly 2,000 acres of land have gone up in flames. Here's raw video of the firefighting effort:
Firefighters in New Jersey remain on high alert due to the extremely dry conditions across the state. "Right now, the numbers don’t lie," Michael Drake, acting chief of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, tells the Star-Ledger. "It tells me that the whole entire state is dry. The weather forecast that I saw said it’s going to be a beautiful weekend, which means it’s going to be a working weekend for most of us."
