The Garden State Parkway has reopened between Exits 38 and 63 in both directions, after a four-hour closure due to smoke from a wildfire and dense fog, officials said.
The 5,000-acre Allen Road Wildfire has been burning through Bass River State Forest since Wednesday. As of Friday morning, the fire has reached 5,000 acres and is 50 percent contained.
The closures were due to dense fog and heavy smoke, Ocean County Sheriff said in a Facebook post.
No residential structures are threatened at this time, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said.
– Jenna Calderón, Asbury Park Press
NJ wildfire updatesOcean County Parkway exits reopened after closure due to smoke, fog from wildfire
Wildfire, smoke map
Rain forecast in Nova Scotia promises relief after week of wildfires
Rain on Friday and a rainy forecast for the weekend have fire officials hopeful they can get the largest wildfire ever recorded in Canada’s Atlantic Coast province of Nova Scotia under control.
That wildfire and three others in the province have prompted air quality warnings in U.S. regions as far south as Virginia and Maryland.
“My weather app says 80% change rain. Giddy up to that,” Halifax Mayor Mike Savage tweeted.
The massive Barrington Lake fire in Nova Scotia’s southwest is now considered the province’s largest wildfire on record. Burning more than 200 square kilometers kilometers (77 square miles) in Shelburne County, the big blaze continues to withstand round after round of water bombers and air tankers dropping water and fire retardant from the cloudy skies.
But rain is forecast in that area and for the provincial capital, Halifax, where another wildfire has forced the evacuation of thousands. The wet weather is set to continue from Friday into Monday and Tuesday next week.
– The Associated Press
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