New York parks employee died battling one of a number of wildfires in New Jersey and New York amid dry conditions that have prompted air quality warnings in both states, authorities said Sunday.
The worker died when a tree fell on him Saturday afternoon as he battled a major brush fire along the New York-New Jersey border, according to reports from the Eastern Dutchess County Fire and Rescue and the New York state forestry services.
“Rip brother your shift is over job well done,” the New York State forestry services post said.
New York State Police said they were investigating the death amid the fire in Sterling Forest located in Greenwood Lake and identified the victim as Dariel Vasquez, an 18-year-old state Parks and Recreation aide employed by the New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Department.
The fires in New York and New Jersey come as firefighters are also battling a wildfire in California.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Forest Fire Service reported the sprawling blaze had spread to 3.9 square miles (about 10 square kilometers) near the border in Passaic County’s West Milford and Orange County, New York. Officials said Sunday the blaze, dubbed the Jennings Creek wildfire, was now threatening 14 Greenwood Lake structures as well as two New Jersey homes and eight buildings in that state’s Long Pond Ironworks Historic District.
Read the full story from the Associated Press