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West Milford fire among several wildfires burning in northern New Jersey
POMPTON LAKES, N.J. — Crews continued to battle several wildfires in northern New Jersey on Saturday.
Fires have been breaking out across the state this week as the drought affecting the Tri-State Area stretches on.
“New Jersey Forest Fire Service in general has responded to over 400 fires last month and roughly 40-some fires between yesterday and today,” New Jersey Forest Fire Service Chief Bill Donnelly said Saturday.
The chief said it’s likely fires will continue popping up until the region gets some rain.
“It’s up to Mother Nature. When she brings the rain, we’ll take a break, but until we see that, I don’t see any break in sight,” he said.
An air quality alert has been issued for northern New Jersey, along with New York City and the Hudson Valley, through 12 a.m. Monday due to the smoke.
CBS News New York
1 dead in fire spreading across New Jersey and New York
The most recently reported blaze is the Jennings Creek wildfire near Greenwood Lake Turnpike and East Shore Road in West Milford. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service first reported it around 2:15 p.m. Saturday.
“That’s a fire that started yesterday. Our fire tower noticed it, and it was spotted in New York. Well, yesterday afternoon, the fire was pushing into New York. Winds changed overnight and started pushing it back into New Jersey,” Donnelly said.
The fire service said it has spread across 2,000 acres, including part of New York’s Orange County, and is not contained at all. Donnelly says it’s the biggest wildfire in the state so far this year.
A total of 10 structures are being threatened by the fire, including two homes, but there have not been any evacuations at this time, the fire service said.
East Shore Road and Beach Road are both closed, along with all trails in Long Pond Ironworks State Park and Tranquility Ridge.
According to Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, somebody responding to the fire was killed Saturday afternoon. Further details have not yet been released.
Pompton Lakes fire
The Cannonball 3 wildfire near Cannonball Road in Pompton Lakes was first reported early Saturday morning.
The New Jersey Forest Fire Service reported just before 3:30 p.m. that the fire had spread across 164 acres and was 50% contained. The service says the flames are threatening 55 structures, but none have been evacuated at this time.
“Everything seems to realistically be in good shape,” Donnelly said of the Pompton Lakes fire.
Englewood Cliffs fire
A wildfire burning along the Palisades Interstate Parkway in Englewood Cliffs, which started overnight Thursday into Friday, is now 75% contained after spreading over 39 acres, the fire service said Saturday evening.
No structures are threatened at this time, and the fire service said there will not be any additional updates on this fire unless there is a significant development.
Fire officials have not determined the cause of any of these three fires at this time.
New Jersey wildfires
The ongoing dry, windy conditions have helped fuel a number of wildfires across New Jersey in recent days, including a fire in Jackson Township that started Wednesday.
Fire officials say that wildfire ultimately spread over 350 acres, but crews were able to achieve 90% containment by Friday evening.
The Ocean County prosecutor’s office announced Saturday that the cause of the fire was determined to be magnesium shards from a shotgun round igniting combustibles on the berm of a shooting range. A Brick Township man has been arrested and charged with arson and violation of the regulatory provisions relating to firearms in connection to the Jackson Township wildfire.
contributed to this report.
The House Ethics Committee, which has been conducting an investigation into sexual misconduct and obstruction allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, scheduled a vote for Friday on whether to release its report, according to three sources with knowledge of the committee’s work.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to nominate Gaetz to be attorney general, Gaetz resigned his congressional seat, effective immediately.
“I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress, to pursue the position of Attorney General in the Trump Administration,” Gaetz said in his resignation letter obtained by CBS News
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that there was about an eight-week period during which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could fill his seat by setting the date for a special election.
Now that Gaetz has resigned, it is unclear whether the panel will vote on releasing the report, since Gaetz is no longer in Congress.
There is precedent in Congress on the Senate side for an ethics committee report to become public after a member resigns from Congress, however. In 2011, this happened when Sen. John Ensign of Nevada resigned amid allegations that he tried to hide an extramarital affair.
But it’s not clear that that would apply to the House, leaving open the possibility that the report on Gaetz would not be released.
In June, the House Ethics Committee released a statement saying it was investigating a range of allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and bribery.
Multiple sources at the time told CBS News that four women had informed the House Ethics Committee that they had been paid to go to parties that included sex and drugs, and that Gaetz had also attended. The committee has Gaetz’s Venmo transactions that allegedly show payments for the women.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has called the committee’s investigation a “frivolous” smear campaign.
Some of the allegations of sexual misconduct under review by the committee were also the subject of a previous Department of Justice probe into Gaetz. Federal investigators sought to determine if Gaetz violated sex trafficking and obstruction of justice laws, but no charges were filed.
The House Ethics Committee resumed its investigation into Gaetz in 2023, following the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue charges against him.
Gaetz has long blamed then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, also a Republican, for the probe. And Gaetz later led the movement to sack McCarthy as speaker.
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