A major wildfire in New Jersey continues to rage, but officials have lifted evacuation orders affecting thousands of people.
The blaze broke out across 8,500 acres, forcing 3,000 residents to leave their homes and the closure of a large stretch of highway.
On Wednesday morning, more than 25,000 homes were still without power, as Jersey Central Power & Light scrambled to restore supply to the region, according to poweroutage.us and Lacey PD.
Lacey Township Police declared all evacuation orders had been lifted after hundreds of people were forced to seek refuge in emergency shelters overnight. The Garden State Parkway, one of New Jersey's busiest highways, has also reopened after a stretch had been shut down on Tuesday night.
Officials are due to provide an update on the fast-moving situation at a press briefing later this morning.
The fires threatened damage to 1,300 structures in Ocean County – roughly 50 miles from Philadelphia – but so far there have been no reports of fatalities or injuries.
The Jones Road wildfire in Ocean County had reached buildings on the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant campus as of Wednesday morning, according to the local Lakewood Scoop newspaper.
Officials are yet to identify the cause of the blaze, and neighboring counties have been placed on high alert.
The Red Cross in New Jersey advised anyone outside to “not put wet clothing or bandanas over your mouth or nose”, stating that “moist air causes more damage to airways than dry air at the same temperature.”
The charity also advised parking cars outside in the direction of the evacuation route, closing windows and doors to prevent smoke, and wearing long-sleeved clothing.
Jersey Central Power & Light said in a statement Wednesday: “Additional Crews Requested - Due to the complexity of the repairs, additional resources are required to safely restore power to your area. They will be dispatched as quickly as possible.”
The fire in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area burned more than 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) of land, fire officials said.
Debi Schaffer was among the thousands of residents affected by the blaze. She was caught in gridlocked traffic after evacuating with her two dogs while her husband agreed to stay with their 22 chickens, The Press of Atlantic City reported.
“I wanted to take them in the car with me; can you imagine 22 chickens in a car?" she told the newspaper.
Around her Waretown house, it was “like a war zone,” she said, describing smoke, sirens and the buzz of helicopters.
The site of the fire is near an alpaca farm. The farm said in a Facebook post that the property wasn’t threatened and all of the animals were safe.
The blaze is the second major forest fire in the region in less than a week.
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