West Milford wildfire burns hundreds of acres in New Jersey, largest since 2010

WEST MILFORD, NJ - For the third day, New Jersey firefighters are continuing to battle a forest fire that's still spreading and burning hundreds of acres in West Milford.

This is the largest fire in North Jersey since 2010, and it is only growing larger. The Kanouse Fire is now nearly a thousand acres in size at 975 acres.

Fire crews have been working through the night, some of them for longer than 24 hours. 

Officials have increased the number of firefighters fighting the fire from 35 to 50.

So far, the fire is only 65 percent contained. According to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service to get it 100% contained, they’re going to need significant rainfall, hopefully coming this weekend.

However, fire conditions are continuing to worsen, with wind spreading the fire across a larger and larger area.

Aerial view of the scene.

The New Jersey forest fire service admitted that Thursday night they were confident they had a handle on this firefight. 

But then conditions worsened, temperatures rose and winds increased. 

They had the fire in the containment area, but an ember was picked up by the wind, and it flew across Lake Echo, which is about a half mile wide, starting a new fire.

Inside this forest are dying ash trees, eaten out by an invasive insect, the emerald ash borer, and they’re going up like paper.

Fire is being brought up in the trees, all the way up to the canopy and the wind is only spreading it.

"I just want to stress with all of you and try to help the public understand, we've got a lot of environment factors going on," said John Cecil, assistant, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of environmental protection. "We've got really warm conditions, we've got a changing climate, we've got the impact of these invasive plants and insects - all of that coming together to kind of exacerbate to what we typically would expect as of normal fire conditions here in the Oak Hickory Forest."

Only one homeowner had to be evacuated. 

But there are no evaluation orders in place.

That could change all it takes is one ember to be picked up by the wind and start a new fire.

RELATED: Fire burns thousands of acres in Pinelands

Last month, a wildfire in the Pine Barrens threatened over a dozen homes in Little Egg Harbor, not far from the site of a massive forest fire in 2007 at an Air National Guard target range. That fire burned nearly 27 square miles.

April is the peak month for forest fires in New Jersey, officials said, and despite its status as the nation's most densely populated state, 40% of it is forest. 

There are about 1,500 wildfires a year in New Jersey, according to the state Forest Fire Service.

The Associated Press wire services helped contribute to this story.