New York State Police say 18-year-old Dariel Vasquez — a park ranger with the state Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation — died Saturday while responding to a fire near the Orange County village of Greenwood Lake.
County Executive Steve Neuhaus says the blaze has grown to more than 2,000 acres since it first started on the New York-New Jersey border a couple weeks ago. Speaking with WAMC Sunday night, he urged residents on Cliff Road to voluntarily evacuate.
"We have a full-on forest fire going on right now, and we don't want to evacuate people's houses at 2 o'clock in the morning," said Neuhaus on Sunday. "This is going to be at least a couple days, if not a week, to finish the rest of this fire and put it out.”
The Greenwood Lake fire is one of several brush fires to pop up in recent days, as dry weather and strong winds feed sparks across the Northeast. Sunday night brought some much-needed rain to the region. Neuhaus says homes in Greenwood Lake are no longer under threat as of Monday morning, but the fire is still not contained.
In Ulster County, crews were able to shrink the so-called “Whitehouse Fire” by the town of Denning. County Emergency Services Director Everett Erichsen says the fire started Friday and grew as big as 600 acres over the weekend, expanding into Sullivan County. Two structures were destroyed — a cabin and a trailer — but Erichsen says there is no threat to the public at this time.
He says crews established a fire line and used controlled burns and bucket drops to bring the fire to 90 percent containment Sunday night.
“There’s fuel between the fire and the fire line. And the only way, really, to put this fire out is to eilminate the fuel. It needs to burn itself out," Erichsen explains. "So they did some backburns between the fire line that was created, back to the fire itself. Today we have 138 people on the ground working towards finishing containment.”
Erichsen says multple roads leading up to Peekamoose Road in Denning are closed.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. There’s no question, however, that there is plenty of fuel for wildfires this time of year. Officials in Dutchess County say they received calls for more than 40 brush fire incidents last week. The East Fishkill Fire Department says it responded to three burning structures that were likely caused by “smoldering combustibles” left outside the residences.
Multiple municipalities have implemented burn bans, but Erichsen says little things can set off brush fires as well, like discarded cigarette butts and hot vehicles.
“Come the fall and even early spring, you should really make sure that you’re cleaning the leaves from around your house. Because that’s just fuel right around your house," he notes. "Even be careful mowing your lawn! We had a fire the other day, a small brush fire that started from a lawn mower.”
Orange County Executive Neuhaus says power was shut off in some parts of Greenwood Lake Sunday. The Red Cross has set up a temporary shelter at the Greenwood Lake Community Center on Waterstone Road for anyone who needs assistance.
