Forest fire at New Jersey Air National Guard range 80% contained

Editor’s note: This story was updated Wednesday, July 17, 2024, with updates from The Associated Press.

BARNEGAT, N.J. — Heavy rain overnight helped firefighters gain more control over a forest fire burning at a military bombing range in southern New Jersey.

Fire officials said Wednesday that half an inch of rain fell overnight at the Warren Grove Air to Ground Range, a training facility for the New Jersey Air National Guard in the New Jersey Pinelands.

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The New Jersey Forest Fire Service responded around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday to Warren Grove, where weapons testing had been scheduled for late Tuesday morning. It wasn’t immediately clear if the testing had taken place and, if it did, played a role in the fire.

As of Wednesday, the fire had burned 1,167 acres, or just under 2 square miles.

No structures were threatened, and no injuries or property damage was reported as of Wednesday.

Fire crews remained on the scene Wednesday working to fully contain the blaze.

The range covers 9,400 acres and 60 miles of airspace, according to the New Jersey Air National Guard’s website . It’s used for a variety of military exercises, including weapons delivery practice for helicopters and other aircraft teams, laser training and gunnery and munitions drills.

The range, which is secluded from roads by dense forests, is about 34 miles south of Joint Base McGuire-Dix–Lakehurst, one of the largest military facilities in New Jersey. It also was the scene of a 2007 fire that burned 17,000 acres and led to the evacuation of thousands of residents. That fire, which was touched off when a pilot dropped a flare into the range during a training exercise, destroyed four homes and damaged about 50 others.