http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_135152335.html
(CBS 3 / AP) LITTLE EGG HARBOR TWP., N.J. More than a half-inch of rain gave a major assist to firefighters working to subdue a massive wildfire that has charred 14,000 acres of the New Jersey Pinelands, and it is now 70 percent contained, a fire official said Wednesday night.
Maris Gabliks, chief of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, said firefighters expect to declare the blaze under control sometime Thursday.
"We now believe we have turned the corner. The people of the Pinelands are fortunate tonight," said Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
A thunderstorm that firefighters had anxiously awaited most of the day arrived over the blaze at about 6:30 p.m., just after high winds from the approaching storm pushed the fire eastward toward the Garden State Parkway, jeopardizing not only the road but thousands of homes east of it.
The rain falling on the flames was creating huge plumes of white steam that was mixing with the gray and black smoke blowing eastward.
The blaze, which is believed to have been touched off by a National Guard F-16 that dropped a flare during a training exercise Tuesday afternoon in the tinder-dry Pinelands region, soon sent walls of flame racing toward senior citizen communities, where elderly residents grabbed their pets and ran.
"It was as close to hell on Earth as you'll ever experience in your life," Plante said. Speaking in a trailer park where two homes were incinerated and others damaged, Plante said, "The wall of fire that came here was twice as tall as the trees, easily 80 to 100 feet in the air."
Plante previously said he expected up to 17,000 acres to be scorched before it is extinguished.
About 6,000 people were evacuated from 2,500 homes. That included 300 patients in three nursing homes who had been relocated without incident, said State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes.
About 115 people remained in shelters by Wednesday evening, down from about 600 in the morning, Fuentes said.
More than 600 firefighters, some called from as far away as 30 miles, used helicopters, water tanker trucks, bulldozers and other equipment to try to contain the fire, which was burning in the New Jersey Pinelands west of the Garden State Parkway.
Authorities closed down a 19 mile section of the Garden State Parkway from exit 50 to 69 for a time on Wednesday because wafts of thick smoke made visibility dangerously low for drivers. All traffic was diverted onto Route 9. It was reopened for the entire length Wednesday afternoon.
"If it crossed the Parkway, the fire spreads into an area where there's forest and there's thousands of homes interspersed into that forest area," Gabliks said.
Authorities downgraded their count of homes damaged by the flames to 13, down from 50 Tuesday night. A closer inspection revealed that many of the houses that were believed to have suffered damage were not structurally harmed.
Five homes in two senior citizen housing developments in Barnegat were destroyed.
Authorities said a Claims Center has been opened in Tuckerton, N.J. Residents who need to file a claim can go to the Army National Guard Center at 365 East Main Street. The center will be open from 12 p.m. - 8 p.m. Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. the days after. The center will remain open as needed. Fire victims can also call 609-297-2129.
Dry conditions and strong winds helped fan the blaze, which began Tuesday afternoon on a military aerial bombing range about 25 miles north of Atlantic City.
Two state forest fire officials suffered minor injuries, but no serious injuries or deaths were reported.
Routes 539 and 72 were closed by the fire, which started about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday on the Warren Grove Gunnery Range, a 9,400-acre expanse of sand and scrub pine used for aerial bombing practice by Air National Guard units.
Lt. Col. James Garcia, a spokesman for the New Jersey Air National Guard, said it was believed a flare dropped from one its F-16s may have started the blaze, though an investigation was ongoing.
Officials said if the flare is deemed the cause of the fire, the Air Force will reimburse homeowners who had their homes destroyed or damaged.
The range was the same facility from which a National Guard jet accidentally strafed an elementary school with large-caliber rounds in 2004 during a training exercise.
U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg complained Wednesday that the military hadn't followed up on safety pledges after the 2004 accident.
"This wildfire shows that the Air National Guard has not followed through on its pledge of increased safety," said Lautenberg, who said he would request a meeting with the Air Force and Air National Guard to address safety issues.
In 2001, an errant Air National Guard practice bomb caused a fire that burned more than 1,600 acres in the Pine Barrens.
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16 May 2007, 11:49 am
