By Katharine Jackson and Doyinsola Oladipo
(Reuters) -A New Jersey teenager has been charged with arson in connection with a wildfire in the Pinelands region that has already scorched 15,000 acres and could grow into the largest blaze in the state since 2007, prosecutors said on Thursday.
The Jones Road Wildfire, which started on Tuesday morning in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area in Ocean County, was caused by an improperly extinguished bonfire, the Ocean County prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Joseph Kling, 19, was charged with arson and aggravated arson in connection with the blaze, which spread to at least 15,000 acres and destroyed a commercial building, officials said in a statement.
“Kling was the individual responsible for setting wooden pallets on fire – and then leaving the area without the fire being fully extinguished,” the statement said.
The fire, which was burning in an unpopulated area halfway between Asbury Park and Atlantic City, was 50% contained as of Wednesday evening, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, but “soaking rainfall” would be needed to fully extinguish it, officials said.
The Ocean County resident was taken into custody at the Township Police Headquarters and later transported to the Ocean County Jail, where he will be held pending a detention hearing.
The blaze could become the largest in New Jersey since a May 2007 fire that consumed 17,000 acres, said Shawn LaTourette, the state’s commissioner of environmental protection, at a press conference on Tuesday.
On average, 1,500 wildfires damage or destroy 7,000 acres of the state’s forests each year, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said on its website.
While the blaze is no longer a threat to populated areas, Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency beginning on Wednesday morning. She was filling in for Governor Phil Murphy, who was on an overseas trip.
(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York and Kat Jackson in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty, Editing by William Maclean)
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