Ocean Co. Wildfire: 13 Sq. Miles Burned, 3,000 People Evacuated

The Ocean County wildfire that started about 10 am on Tuesday spread rapidly and wreaked havoc in parts of Ocean and Lacey townships.

The Jones Road wildfire began near the Barnegat-Waretown town line and moved northward into Lacey later in the day.

The blaze closed parts of the Garden State Parkway and Route 9 during rush hour and forced the evacuations of over 3000 people.

Ocean County Fire By the Numbers

- Over 8.500 acres burned; 13 square miles of land

- 10% contained as of 11 pm Tuesday, according to the NJ Forest Fire Service

- 1,320 buildings were threatened by the fire

- 3,000 people were evacuated. As of 6:30 am Wednesday, all evacuation orders were lifted, and residents were told they could safely return home.

- 2 schools, Southern Regional High School and Manchester High School, housed evacuees and their pets Tuesday night

- Approximately 25,000 JCP&L customers lost power in a forced outage. Barnegat Township Police say Jersey Central Power & Light de-energized all lines in and out of the Oyster Creek substation at the request of the Forest Fire Service. 7 AM update. JCP&L is reevaluating its lines and equipment in the hope it can turn power back on.

- 17 miles of the Garden State Parkway were impacted and closed in either direction as smoke overtook the highway.