Governor Hochul Announces Full Containment of Jennings Creek Wildfire at Sterling Forest State Park

Governor Hochul Announces Full Containment of Jennings Creek Wildfire at Sterling Forest State Park  

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that after 14 days, the Jennings Creek/Sterling Forest State Park wildfire on the New York border is now fully contained. The State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers are leading the incident response in cooperation with the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, New York State Police, Orange County, New York Army National Guard, and many other State and local partners plus wildland firefighters from New Jersey Forest Fire Service, Colorado and Montana. Response actions in the area will continue in the coming days with a smaller force of state and local experts as final fire control efforts advance.

"For two weeks, firefighting crews and staff responded from around the state to battle the Jennings Creek wildfire and today they were successful in fully containing the fire," Governor Hochul said. "From the start, we launched a coordinated response with every available resource to help our first responders complete this mission, and could not have done this without the professional and volunteer crews that worked alongside our partners in New Jersey, and crews from Colorado and Montana. I thank all of them for their hard work, spending time away from their families and working tirelessly every day to keep New Yorkers safe."

As part of the response, the Governor deployed additional State assets including personnel and Army National Guard Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, as well as State Police Huey helicopters. Combined, these helicopters dumped more than 500,000 gallons of water on the fire over the course of a week. The State also deployed bulldozers and bulldozer operators and other professional staff and volunteers to contain the fire. Since Nov. 10, 427 fire companies - nearly all of them volunteers - have sent more than 1,300 firefighters and equipment to help. Responders attacked this fire from the ground and in the air. The steady rain and snow in the past two days brought much needed moisture to the region, acting as a blanket to drop the ground temperature and suppress the fire.

To date, the fire has burned 5,304 acres across New York and New Jersey since Nov. 8. The fire is 100-percent contained and 100-percent controlled. As a result, the State's Incident Management Team, along with volunteer crews have demobilized. Some sections of fire may remain within the deeper forested interior of the park and qualified fire crews from DEC, Parks Forest Rangers and Montana will continue to patrol the perimeter throughout the rain and snow late this week, and proceed with mop-up operations as needed until the fire is completely suppressed.

While recent rain helped improve dry conditions in many parts of the state, New York still has a statewide burn ban in effect until Nov. 30 due to increased fire risk. This burn ban prohibits the starting of outdoor fires statewide for purposes of brush and debris disposal, as well as uncontained campfires, and open fires used for cooking. Backyard fire pits and contained campfires less than three feet in height and four feet in length, width, or diameter are allowed, as are small, contained cooking fires. Burning garbage or leaves is prohibited year-round in New York State, and several municipalities have burn bans currently in effect. 

Sterling Forest State Park will reopen for hiking and hunting effective Saturday east of Long Meadow Road and north of Route 17A. Trails in the fire zone will remain closed indefinitely.