Ocean-Burlington Wildfire 50 Percent Contained: Officials

MANCHESTER, NJ — Firefighters were battling a wildfire through the night Sunday into Monday on the border of Manchester and Woodland townships, officials said.

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service said the fire in the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest off Pasadena Road was 50 percent contained as of about 11:30 p.m. and had consumed about 300 acres of forest.

There were no structures threatened late Sunday and there had been no injuries the forest fire service said, updating its earlier report that said seven structures were at risk.

Crews from the Forest Fire Service were setting backfires to help contain the fire, officials said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, authorities said.

Backfires are fires that are intentionally set along the interior edge of a fireline by Forest Fire Service staff to consume fuel in the path of a wildfire and/or to change the direction or force of a fire.

Manchester Township police said the wildfire along with a compost fire at the Ocean County Landfill earlier Sunday afternoon were sending smoke throughout Manchester but that no Manchester residents were in danger.