What to Know
- A long stretch of New Jersey's Garden State Parkway has reopened as firefighters work to contain a 5,000-acre forest fire.
- The blaze broke out Wednesday night in the Bass River State Forest, along the border of Burlington and Ocean counties in southern New Jersey. The state Forest Fire Service says it's about 50 percent contained and no longer threatening any structures or residential areas as of Friday morning.
- Roughly 40 people were evacuated from a camping area as a precaution. That site remained shuttered Friday.
UPDATE: As of Saturday morning, officials considered this fire 100-percent contained.
As a wildfire continued to burn in Ocean County, New Jersey, the smoky conditions contributed to the hourslong closure of a miles of the Garden State Parkway just as folks head to the Jersey Shore for the weekend.
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The New Jersey Turnpike Authority -- which operates the Garden State Parkway -- announced Friday morning just after 5:30 that the combination of wildfire smoke from the Allen Road Wildfire in the Bass River State Forest and dense fog led to the closure of the GSP between the Atlantic City Expressway (Exit 38) and NJ 72 (Exit 63). That's a 25-mile stretch of the busy roadway.
As of 7:15 a.m., NJ 511 tweeted that northbound and southbound traffic was being diverted from the GSP.
The GSP is a critical road for people accessing Jersey Shore points. No word yet when traffic might return to normal. In the meantime, adjacent U.S. Route 9 could be used as an alternate through parts of the closure.
Stafford police tweeted Friday morning that due to the GSP closure that traffic was being diverted on Route 72. They warned drivers to expect delays.
Finally, after 9:30 a.m., the Garden State Parkway announced that both northbound and southbound lanes were open again. They warned however of slower speeds between exits 48 and 52.
This all came as firefighters tried to contain a massive wildfire that has burned thousands of acres of a New Jersey forest and at one point threatened buildings.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the Allen Road Wildfire in Ocean County's Bass River State Forest was 50% contained after burning 5,000 acres. As of 5 p.m. Friday, the fire is now 80% contained.
"A backfiring operation to help contain the fire continued today to assist in achieving containment goals," the forest fire service said.
Firefighters first responded to the blaze Wednesday afternoon at 4:45 p.m. The fire was initially burning in only several dozen acres, but quickly spread.
At least six homes were threatened by the flames and evacuated and the Timberline Campground was evacuated, the forest fire service said. In total, about 40 people were evacuated.
As of Thursday evening, Allen Road and Oswego Road remained closed as well as Stage Road between North Maple Avenue and Rt. 679 and Route 679 between Rt. 563 and Leaktown Road.
While zero residential structures were threatened as of late Thursday, the Timberline Campground and the Batona Trail in Bass River State Forest remained closed.
Fire officials expected the battle against the blaze to take some time to fully contain.
The smoke from the Allen Road Fire was blowing over other parts of New Jersey and Delaware, adding to an already rough air quality due to Canadian wildfire smoke.
This is the latest wildfire to strike the Garden State amid a stretch of mostly dry weather.
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