Governor Hochul Provides Update on Wildfires Impacting New York State

Orange County Jennings Creek/Sterling Forest State Park

The main fire co-located in New York and New Jersey is now estimated at 5000 acres, including 2,500 acres on the New York side, and is 10 percent contained. This includes acreage that is actively burning and acreage that has already been burned. Tragically, a New York State Parks employee lost his life responding to this fire. A second 42-acre fire is located near West Mombasha Road and the Appalachian Trail and is contained. New York officials are working in close coordination with New Jersey officials.

On Monday, 277 emergency responders, including firefighters from 44 companies with 230 personnel; six law enforcement agencies with 28 staff members and four EMS crews with 19 personnel, responded to the wildfire. This also includes representatives from Orange County, the New Jersey Fire Service, Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, New York State Police, Department of Transportation and State Parks. Crews worked throughout the night widening and reinforcing existing fire lines between the fire and areas of Wah Ta Wah Park and Sylvan Park.

There are four helicopters responding including two operated by the New York State Police. DMNA is providing two Blackhawk Helicopters to support the response on Monday in addition to the two NYSP helicopters already assisting. The two UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter buckets can carry 660 gallons of water. On Monday, helicopters dropped over 100 buckets of water on the fire.

There have been no mandatory evacuations, however, as a precaution, 12 homes in the Town of Warwick, Orange County voluntarily evacuated.

Potable water is available for the public at 18 Church Street at Village of Greenwood Hall.

Whitehouse Fire

The fire in the Town of Denning, Ulster County is 95 percent contained within 630 acres.The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Forest Rangers are coordinating the response. Twelve rangers worked on the fire with the unified command of Sullivan and Ulster County 911 Centers and volunteer fire departments. Twenty fire departments provided over 185 firefighters with apparatus from engines, brush trucks, tankers, bull dozers and UTV's.

NYC DEP aviation and NYS Police aviation provided support with bucket drops and aerial imaging. Two structures burned in Ulster County, an abandoned house and outbuilding.

From 2007 to 2023, New York State had an average of 117 wildfires per year, with an average of 1,400 acres burned per year. The wildfire at Jennings Creek-Sterling Forest State Park in the Town of Warwick, Orange County supersedes the amount of acreage burned in wildfires in 14 of the 17 years of available data per the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in New York State. In 2008, the Overlooks Fire in the Town of Rochester, Ulster County burned a total of 2,855 acres. The largest brush fire to occur in New York State was the Adirondack Fire of 1903, which lasted for six weeks and burned a total area of 600,000 acres.