Crews battle brush fires across the Northeast amid extremely dry conditions

Crews across multiple states in the Northeast battled back brush fires on Saturday, as a dangerous combination of extremely dry conditions and gusty winds continued to present a major threat to local communities.

In upstate New York, a fire burning in Plattekill, some 70 miles north of Manhattan, had expanded to over 50 acres with “fluctuating winds increasing the risk of rapid growth,” the city’s fire department said Saturday afternoon.

The Marlboro Mountain/Hemlock Ridge Fire, first reported on Wednesday, had been 95% contained as of Saturday, but officials warned the area’s “moderate-to-difficult terrain” was making efforts “extremely difficult.”

Two firefighters had to be transported to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

In New Jersey on Saturday, a large brush fire on the campus of Drew University in Madison, roughly 15 miles west of Newark, had been marked as “under control.” Other fires were reported in at least four counties across southeast Pennsylvania.

In Connecticut, the hardest-hit state, crews worked for their sixth straight day to extinguish the massive Hawthorne Fire in the town of Berlin, just south of Hartford. The fire, which began on Oct. 21, was likely caused by sparks from a campfire, officials said.

By the end of the week, the Hawthorne Fire had spread south to Meriden and burned an area of roughly 110 acres around Lamentation Mountain.

Over 173,000 gallons of water had been dumped on the fire as of Saturday, according to the Connecticut National Guard.

Conn. Governor Ned Lamont declared a state of emergency on Friday “due to critical fire weather conditions” across the state, citing the lack of rain and “severely dry” weather over the past two months — a dangerous situation that could stretch for at least the next seven to 10 days.

Millions of others across the Northeast were also in areas with elevated risk for fire spread, the National Weather Service said.

Red flag warnings — issued when warm temperatures, strong winds and very low humidity are expected to produce an increased risk of fire danger — were in effect across the tristate region through at least Saturday night and into Sunday in some areas.

In New York, a red flag warning had been issued for New York City, Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley. The air quality in those areas had so far not been affected by smoke from the fires.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of the Northeast experienced “abnormally dry” to “severe drought” conditions over the past week, with approximately 64% of the region having faced unusually dry conditions.