New Jersey man charged with starting massive, half-contained wildfire in Ocean County

A New Jersey man was arrested in connection with sparking the 15,250-acre fire that has burned for several days in Ocean County, just miles from the Jersey Shore.

Joseph Kling, 19, of Waretown, has been charged with arson and aggravated arson, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said Thursday morning in a joint statement posted to Facebook.

The blaze — which was 50% contained as of Thursday evening — could become New Jersey’s largest since 2007, when a 17,000-acre wildfire burned in the same general area, LaTourette told reporters at a news conference.

The fire started about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, when a Cedar Bridge Fire Tower spotter noticed plumes of smoke in Ocean Township near Jones and Bryant Roads. Upon arrival, the statement said, emergency crews observed a fire inside the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust’s Forked River Mountains Wilderness Area, a preserve known for birding and biking.

Since then, the fire has snaked through the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area to the wilderness of the Pinelands, prompting acting Gov. Tahesha Way to declare a state of emergency. More than 5,000 people in neighboring Lacey and Ocean Townships were also ordered to evacuate Tuesday night, but have since returned home.

No injuries have been reported. Several vehicles and one commercial building had been destroyed by the flames as of Thursday afternoon, when wafting smoke triggered air quality warnings for Atlantic City and the New York City metropolitan area. Officials advised people in those areas with heart or lung conditions to limit outdoor activities.

Kling allegedly set several wooden pallets on fire Tuesday morning, the statement said, and left them there to burn unattended.

A police affidavit obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer alleges that Kling “did purposely start a fire with the purpose of destroying or damaging any forest, specifically by lighting a bonfire off Jones Road in Waretown N.J., and leaving it unattended causing a wildfire.”

At a late-afternoon news conference, Billhimer, the Ocean County prosecutor, when asked to clarify if he was saying Kling intended to start a wildfire, replied: “I didn’t say he intentionally set it to be a wildfire. I said we’re confident he intentionally set a fire.”

Kling was taken into police custody Wednesday, according to the statement. During a brief court appearance Thursday via Zoom before Ocean County Judge James Gluck, Kling looked solemn, staring at the floor or nervously fidgeting with his hair. Gluck ruled that Kling will be detained at the Ocean County Jail until a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Kling had been arrested in January on charges of misdemeanor assault and endangering an injured person alongside six other men and one teenager in connection with a fight that occurred near the site of Lacey Materials. A hearing in that case is scheduled for May 12.

“This is the worst fire in the history of our township,” Peter Curatolo, mayor of Lacey Township, previously told The Inquirer. “I know our residents were terrified.”

On the tree-lined street in Waretown where Kling’s family resides, ashes floated across the gravel and stone front yards, smudging black on the front steps. Kling’s family did not answer when a reporter knocked on the door of their one-story home on Letts Landing Road.

The wildfire threatened eight unspecified structures as of Thursday afternoon, according to an X post from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, but roads have begun to reopen.

Wells Mill Road in Waretown had reopened just before 5 a.m. Thursday, while the heavily used Garden State Parkway and Route 9 reopened Wednesday night.

Experts, however, say the fire still could spread further.

During Wednesday night’s news conference, LaTourette said that the blaze’s growth was “influenced” by drought conditions from last summer that have lingered into peak wildfire season. The weather is favorable for fires: low humidity, high temperatures, and steady winds.

Thursday had been expected to be especially bad for fire-containment efforts, according to Ray Martin, a lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, with temperatures potentially reaching 80 degrees as wind speeds hovered between 35 and 45 mph.

“We do expect additional spread today, but no raging infernos,” Martin said earlier in the day. “It’s not likely the fire would break the containment” area.

About 1,320 buildings were threatened when the fire broke out Tuesday. That number had dropped to 20 by Wednesday night. LaTourette said he was “hopeful” that the fire would remain away from people, “but I’m not going to tell you there’s no chance because wildfires are risky.”

“There’s a lot of work to do,” LaTourette told reporters. “We’ve truly averted a major disaster.”

While humidity will tick up Friday, Martin said that Saturday’s forecast showers could put a “real dent” in the fire even if they don’t necessarily extinguish it.

“It probably needs a really good soaking to really shut it down, and we’re not sure we’re going to get that Saturday,” Martin said. “It could smolder for weeks.”

New Jersey has had a busy wildfire season, charting 662 fires and over 16,500 acres burned. That is 52 times more acreage burned than a year ago, New Jersey Forest Fire Service chief Bill Donnelly said, when 310 wildfires caused 315 acres’ worth of damage this time last year.

(Staff writers Ryan W. Briggs, Anthony R. Wood, and Robert Moran contributed to this article.)

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