New Jersey's Jones Road Fire May Be Largest Wildfire in Decades for the Garden State

Usually, when you think of massive, out of control wildfires, you probably think of California or somewhere out in the American West, right? Or perhaps Australia, where they get large and devastating wildfires, as well.

Those kinds of wildfires are usually relatively rare on the East Coast, or in places like Europe.

Unfortunately, that seems to be changing. In recent years, the East Coast has seen some very large and impactful wildfires. There was the one in Eastern Canada a few years ago, as well as some wildfires in New Jersey last autumn, due to unusually dry weather conditions.

Now, this latest Jones Road fire is so massive, that it might rank as the biggest wildfire that New Jersey has seen in something like two decades.

I have said this before, but will say it again, because it bears repeating. It is my suspicion that this is related to climate change. These kinds of unusual - at least what used to be unusual - variations related to climate and/or weather are, it seems, part of what scientists predicted. From record heat waves every couple of years or so consistently setting new records in places as far away and diverse from one another as the American Southwest, the Arctic regions, Europe (where one highway actually caught fire), China, and Australia, to record droughts in some of those same regions and record flooding in others, and so on.

Now, it seems like wildfires have been grabbing headlines more often than I remember them doing ever before. From the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, which were one of the worst in that city's history, to the current on in New Jersey, it just feels...well, bizarre.

Supposedly, people are saying that they can smell the smoke all the way up by me. And I live and work well over a hundred miles away, in what most people would consider northern Jersey.

Certainly, this feels more than merely coincidental. Sadly, all of this feels like the new normal.

Below are the links to the two articles which I used in writing this particular blog entry:

Evacuations Ended, But Fast-Moving Jones Road Wildfire Could Grow To Be 'Largest Fire In New Jersey In 20 Years' by Renee Straker, April 23, 2025:

The Jones Road Fire in New Jersey only started Tuesday morning but it has consumed more than 17 square miles. Thousands were forced to evacuate as the fire threatened homes in Ocean County and closed a stretch of one of the busiest highways in the state. 

https://weather.com/news/news/2025-04-23-new-jersey-wildfire-evacuations-highway-shutdown-ocean-county

Pine Barrens fire today: 13,500 acres burned, 50% contained Lisa Robyn Kruse Ken Serrano Amanda Oglesby Asbury Park Press April 23, 2025:

https://www.app.com/story/news/local/ocean-county/2025/04/23/barnegat-fire-nj-state-of-emergency-in-ocean-county-nj-wildfire/83228119007/