Rare brushfire in New York stoked by heat, drought

NEW YORK: Over a 100 firefighters battled a rare brushfire in New York City’s Brooklyn borough as prolonged drought and unusually high temperatures have fuelled a series of blazes in the northeast United States, authorities said Saturday.

There were no immediate reports of damage to buildings in the blaze late Friday in the Prospect Park area, and by Saturday all but a few hot spots had been extinguished, reports said.

Mayor Eric Adams warned on X: “After the driest October on record, NYC is under a drought watch, which highly increases our risk of fires.”

Hundreds of brushfires have broken out in New Jersey and Connecticut in recent weeks amid an unseasonably warm and dry fall -- including three blazes that forced evacuations and roads closures, reports said.

It was not immediately clear what sparked the flames that affected roughly two acres (0.8 hectare) in a popular meadow known as the Nethermead in Brooklyn.

Twenty-five fire units, some using drones, responded to the fire, officials said. One firefighter suffered a minor injury and was taken to a hospital.

Officials warned area residents to stay away from the area and keep their windows closed. The city’s emergency management commissioner, Zachary Iscol, said New York had seen a rise in the number of brushfires, which posed an unusual risk due to the prolonged lack of rain, The New York Times reported.

Dry conditions are expected to continue in the area -- now experiencing the second-longest rainless streak in recorded history, local media said -- through year’s end. More than half of the lower 48 states are now in drought conditions, according to the US government’s Drought Monitor, with conditions particularly bad in the East and mid-Atlantic states.