Positive progress with Orange County fire as Hudson Valley placed under drought warning

Progress continues to be made in fighting the Orange County Sterling Forest Park wildfire, with Town of Warwick Supervisor Jesse Dwyer reporting this morning that fire crews will be winding down operations to reduce the overall footprint within the community. It’s now estimated that 5,300 acres have been burned by the fire that started in New Jersey and spread to New York.

“However, interior fire crews will continue working around the clock to identify any hot spots within the containment zone and they will continue doing this for at least another week or until we are all 100% confident the fire has been extinguished,” Dwyer said. “The voluntary evacuation has been fully rescinded for all of Wah Ta Wah Park as well as all of Edgemere as of 9 a.m. this morning. We have also opened up East Shore Rd for non-emergency travel effective immediately.”

In addition to seeking out hot spots that might flare up again, crews are removing hazardous trees. With rain forecast for Thursday and ground cover that usually stabilizes soil destroyed, officials will be monitoring the scorched terrain for sediment runoff onto the area’s roadways.

Gov. Kathy Hochul now has declared a statewide drought watch and elevated 15 counties to drought warning status. Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Putnam, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, Bronx, Delaware, Greene, Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, and Schoharie are the counties affected by the drought watch declaration.

There are four levels of state drought advisories: watch, warning, emergency, and disaster. Under a drought warning, voluntary water conservation is intensified and public water supplies and industries are advised to update and implement local drought contingency plans. Local agencies are supposed to make plans to put into effect in case of an emergency declaration. The state is encouraging but not mandating water conservation by the public to ensure adequate water supply for all emergency uses.

The Hudson Valley remains under “very high risk” for wildfires.