Officials: Rockaway Township wildfire 50% contained
The number of threatened structures has decreased from 16 to one.
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The Morris County wildfire that continues to grow after nearly three days has been 50% contained by Saturday night.
Although progress has been made, crews found out that the fire spread further than originally estimated. The fire has now overtaken 210 acres.
The number of threatened structures has decreased from 16 to one. Residents who were told to evacuate Friday are back in their homes.
“We had at least one engine, sometimes more, at every single residence that was threatened,” Eric Weber from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said. The biggest challenge ahead for crews involves cleaning up more potential fuel in the form of dead trees.
“There's existing roads, and a dozer line,” Weber said. “We basically built the road that we're working off of.” Help has come from all over the state, and also in the form of donated refreshments for the workers.
“A lot of our guys haven’t gotten much sleep lately,” Weber said. “We're going after it hard.”
Officials say this is the second fire to happen in Rockaway Township over the past few days.
It was not immediately clear how the fire started.
