A New Jersey man was arrested in connection with sparking the 15,000-acre fire that has burned for three days straight in Ocean County, just miles from the Jersey Shore.

Joseph Kling, 19, of Waretown, has been charged with arson and aggravated arson, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said in a joint statement posted to Facebook Thursday morning.

The blaze — which was 50% contained as of Thursday morning — could become New Jersey’s largest since 2007 when a 17,000-acre wildfire burned in the same general area, LaTourette told reporters at a Wednesday night news conference.

The fire started at around 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, when the Cedar Bridge Fire Tower spotted plumes of smoke in Ocean Township near Jones Road and Bryant Road. Upon arrival, the statement said, emergency crews observed a fire inside Ocean County Natural Lands Trust’s Forked River Mountains Wilderness Area, a preserve known for birding and biking.

Since then, the fire has snaked through the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area to the wilderness of the Pinelands, sparking Acting Gov. Tahesha Way to declare a state of emergency. More than 5,000 people in neighboring Lacey and Ocean Townships were also ordered to evacuate Tuesday night, but have since returned home.

No injuries have been reported.

Kling allegedly set several wooden pallets on fire Tuesday morning, the statement said, and then left them there to burn unattended.

The fire was started on an undisclosed person’s property with the “purpose of destroying or damaging any forest,” according to a police affidavit obtained by the Inquirer.

Kling was taken into police custody Wednesday, according to the statement. He is staying at the Ocean County Jail while waiting for a detention hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday.

Kling was arrested in January on charges of misdemeanor assault and endangering an injured person, with a hearing scheduled for May 12. Details of this incident were not immediately available Thursday.

“This is the worst fire in the history of our township,” Peter Curatolo, mayor of the impacted Lacey Township, previously told the Inquirer. “I know our residents were terrified.”

High temps and steady winds fan the flames

The wildfire threatens 12 unspecified structures as of Thursday morning, according to an X post from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, but roads have begun to reopen.

Wells Mill Road in Waretown had reopened just before 5 a.m. Thursday, while the heavily used Garden State Parkway and Route 9 reopened Wednesday night.

Experts, however, say the fire still has chance of spreading further.

During Wednesday night’s news conference, LaTourette said that the blaze’s growth was “influenced” by drought conditions from last summer that have lingered into peak wildfire season. The weather is favorable for fires: Low humidity, high temperatures, and steady winds.

Thursday is especially bad for fire containment efforts, according to Ray Martin, a lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. Temperatures could hit 80 degrees while the low humidity persists.

“We do expect additional spread today, but no raging infernos,” said Martin. “It’s not likely the fire would break the containment” area.

About 1,320 buildings were threatened when the fire broke out Tuesday, but that number had dropped to 20 by Wednesday night. LaTourette said he was “hopeful” that the fire would remain away from people, “but I’m not going to tell you there’s no chance because wildfires are risky.”

“There’s a lot of work to do,” LaTourette told reporters. “We’ve truly averted a major disaster.”

Martin said that showers and thunderstorms forecast for Saturday could put a “real dent” in the fire, but couldn’t necessarily extinguish it.

“It probably needs a really good soaking to really shut it down, and we’re not sure we’re going to get that Saturday,” said Martin. “It could smolder for weeks.”

New Jersey has had a busy wildfire season, charting 662 fires and over 16,500 acres burned. That’s 52 times more acreage burned that in 2024, New Jersey Forest Fire Service chief Bill Donnelly said, when 310 wildfires caused 315 acres worth of damage this time last year.

---------

Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.

©2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.