TERRIFYING

Rare Wildfire in New York Prompts Evacuation Orders for Hundreds of Homes

The Jennings Creek fire has burned over 5,000 acres in the northeast.

At least 160 homes in New York were given voluntary evacuation orders on Saturday night after windy conditions exacerbated a wildfire and pushed the blaze toward a town near the New York-New Jersey border. The Jennings Creek Fire has burned over 5,200 acres and is approximately 88 percent contained, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation told the Daily Beast, but a state of emergency in Orange County, New York, was extended again through Monday. The evacuations took place in the communities of Greenwood Lake and Wah-ta-Wah Park, both of which are part of the Orange County town of Warwick. A spokesperson for the DEC said the evacuations were “successful and allowed emergency apparatus and firefighters to operate uninterrupted through the night.” It was not immediately clear how many residents evacuated on Saturday night, or how many returned to their homes on Sunday—although the order remains in place. “Our goal will be to get residents back home by tomorrow and we will evaluate if that can be done safely during our morning briefings,” a Warwick supervisor announced in a social media post on Sunday. The fire has already killed one person earlier this month, an 18-year-old Parks Department employee who was battling the blaze near Greenwood Lake, the New York State Police confirmed.