NJ had decade-high wildfires in 2023. Why are we building more homes in fire-prone areas?

Across New Jersey, 2023 was a year of wildfire and smoke. Fires roared through thousands of acres of forest across the Garden State and led to evacuations of hundreds of homeowners. Areas that did not face urgent wildfire threats still found themselves blanketed in thick, orange haze from the burning Canadian wilderness to the northwest.

Yet, New Jersey development continues to flourish in some of the Garden State's most fire-prone areas, the Asbury Park Press found during an analysis of housing and forest data from the University of Wisconsin.

The Press discovered that nearly one-in-four New Jersey homes are located within areas known as the wildland urban interface, an area where homes and human structures commingle with natural landscapes, according to the University of Wisconsin's Spatial Analysis For Conservation and Sustainability lab.

In 2020, 884,114 homes were in New Jersey's wildland urban interface, according to the University of Wisconsin. That marked an increase of about 167,000 new homes built in these at-risk areas since 1990, according to university data.

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"We're seeing this increase annually in the number of homes, buildings, commercial (structures), that are being constructed (in fire-prone areas)," said Greg McLaughlin, chief of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. "We have to also then assume that they're being constructed in some close proximity in the rural and suburban areas to our natural world and natural vegetation."

Deadly combination

Brush, forest and grasslands in and around these neighborhoods can turn dangerous under the right conditions. Especially during spring, New Jersey's low humidity, quick drying landscapes and strong seasonal winds can propel large and fast moving blazes, McLaughlin said.

"The fires that occur in those (wildland urban interface) zones … are the most dangerous and most difficult fires to respond to, to suppress," McLaughlin said.

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Traffic, evacuations and an unaware public can make firefighting more difficult in these cases, he said.

When wildfire happens in these areas, "you got firefighters in people's back backyards with their sprinkler systems running and just people everywhere," said John Cecil, assistant commissioner for the division of State Parks, Forests and Historic Sites at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. "It creates a significant amount of challenge in terms of just addressing the fire in the forest and keeping it from getting into the structures."

So far this year, New Jersey wildfires burned 18,010 acres of woods and natural areas across the state, according to the Forest Fire Service. That is the largest amount of land burned by forest fires in New Jersey over the past decade, according to the state agency. Typically, about 7,000 acres of New Jersey woodland burns in a given year.

The state also recorded the most major wildfires (14) this year when compared with the previous nine, according to the Forest Fire Service.

The unusually active year for fire and the growing population is putting pressure on existing firefighting resources. To help, Gov. Phil Murphy announced $3 million in additional funding in September for the Forest Fire Service for new equipment and staff.

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'More work for all of us'

As more people move into fire-prone areas, "that creates more work for all of us to do in order to get those people prepared," Cecil said.

"Particularly in the southern part of the state, we've seen in the past, lots of development that was more retiree oriented, and … kind of older communities in terms of the population's age," he said. "If you've grown up in the Pinelands, then you're probably accustomed to the prescribed burning routine and the wildfire season. But if you're new (to the area), maybe not so much."

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The Forest Fire Service is also managing a new and growing problem — a lengthening wildfire season, McLaughlin said. Fires are starting in February and early March, when the typical season used to start in late March or early April, he said.

The seasons are also lasting longer, well into June, July and August, McLaughlin added.

A report by the nonprofit Climate Central found that New Jersey's number of high-risk fire weather days — those with high heat, low humidity and strong winds — grew by 10 in northern New Jersey and by four in southern New Jersey over the past 50 years.

Cecil said "boom and bust cycles" of drought and severe summer storms contribute to the longer season and make fire weather more difficult to predict in New Jersey.

"It's that erratic, climatic-driven component that is really concerning," he said, adding that residents become confused as to which risks to pay attention to and prepare for.

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service remains singularly focused and spends much of the winter burning underbrush and thinning forests around the neighborhoods most at risk from fire. They dig firebreaks and buffers through the forest and try and prepare for the coming spring fire season.

McLaughlin said: "If the wildfire season is starting earlier, it's going to curtail our ability to treat more acres, or even the same acres year to year with a fuel reduction technique, like prescribed burning."

The Forest Fire Service encourages homeowners to keep space around homes clear of brush and trees, to regularly remove pine needles and leaves from gutters, and to avoid highly flammable plants such as rhododendron and mountain laurel in high wildfire risk areas. Additional recommendations are at newjerseywildfirerisk.com.

New Jersey's forest fires in 2023

Governors Branch Wildfire (418 acres), Little Egg Harbor, Ocean County

Jimmy's Waterhole Wildfire (3,450 acres), Manchester and Lakehurst, Ocean County

Kanouse Wildfire (972 acres), West Milford Township, Passaic County

Log Swamp Wildfire (1,607 acres), Little Egg Harbor, Ocean County

River Road Wildfire (241 acres), Washington Township, Burlington County

Cannonball Wildfire (102 acres), Pompton Lakes Borough, Passaic County

Box Turtle Wildfire (158 acres), Monroe Township, Gloucester County

Allen Road Wildfire (5,474 acres), Bass River Township, Burlington County

Flatiron Wildfire (212 acres), Medford, Burlington County

City Line Wildfire (711 acres), Manchester, as well as Pemberton and Woodland Townships, both in Burlington County

Buzby Boggs Wildfire (703 acres), Evesham Township, Burlington County

Acorn Hill Wildfire (246 acres), Woodland Township, Burlington County

Dragway Wildfire (1,778 acres), Waterford Township, Camden County, and Shamong and Medford, Burlington County

Airpark Wildfire (810 acres), Lacey, Ocean County

Source: New Jersey Forest Fire Service

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 15 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ 2023 wildfires reached decade high; more homes built in risky areas