As a massive wildfire continues to burn through Ocean County, New Jersey, some of the impacted residents are expressing frustration over the communication efforts from local officials.
The fire began shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, at the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area in Barnegat Township, Ocean County. It spread to Lacey and Ocean townships, threatening homes, destroying at least one business, closing roads and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
Lisa Sofsky of Barnegat Township told NBC10 she didn’t know the fire was moving toward her home until Tuesday afternoon.
“When I was coming down the parkway from Toms River it was super smoky,” Sofksy said. “That’s when I realized it was a fire. So, I had no idea.”
Sofsky told NBC10 she started getting information from friends and family when she arrived at her home.
“Everybody is doing a group chat,” Sofksy said.
Sofksy – who decided to evacuate after her power went out – claimed she didn’t see any updates on the fire from township officials.
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“I started grabbing everything I could,” she said. “Personal papers. Things I thought were important.”
Since Tuesday afternoon, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service has posted updates on the wildfire on their Facebook page every few hours. In a message that was posted on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m., the service said it would provide another update on Wednesday, April 23, at 11 a.m. Some residents in the comments claimed that wasn’t enough.
“Just clocking out for the night is insane,” one resident posted. “You’d think they’d be giving updates throughout the night considering 10,000 acres of land is uncontrollably burning right now.”
Another resident wrote that the “lack of information, frequency of information and just being left in the dark at night with no one telling us a thing was the most unprofessional thing” they had ever seen.
During the Wednesday morning press conference, NBC10’s Claudia Vargas asked New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette about the criticism from residents, how officials informed the community and why it took hours for there to be a news conference on the fire.
“This fire was incredibly dangerous and particularly in the late afternoon and into evening hours last night,” LaTourette replied. “It would have been a mistake to invite the press into that environment.”
LaTourette went on to say that their focus was saving lives and suggested that people go on the NJ Forest Fire Service social media pages for real time updates.
Not every resident was critical of the communication efforts. David Benko of Barnegat Township told NBC10 he and his wife chose to stay at their home after they were under voluntary evacuation. Benko said he received periodic phone calls from the county with updates on the fire and believes the warnings were adequate. He also saw more warnings when he opened his email Wednesday morning.
“I should’ve checked my emails more frequently,” he said. “Because this morning I was looking at them and all these warnings and notices of what was going on.”
As of Wednesday evening, the wildfire was 50% contained after burning through 13,250 acres. No injuries have been reported and officials have not yet determined a cause.
