Authorities say a man set wooden pallets on fire and failed to properly put them out in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, sparking a quick-moving wildfire with smoke affecting the air quality in the New York City area.

The Jones Road fire is the largest wildfire in New Jersey since June 2022 when the Mullica River Fire scorched 13,500 acres across Wharton State Forest in Burlington County. If the fire surpasses that, it would be the largest in nearly 18 years. In May 2007, the Warren Grove Fire burned 17,000 acres in the Pinelands of southern New Jersey.