Politics
New York State Parks Worker Dies While Fighting Wildfire
The blaze in Orange County, N.Y., was the latest in a series of wildfires to plague the region.
Officials said an 18-year-old employee of the New York State parks system died on Saturday while battling a wildfire in Orange County, one of several blazes in the New York metro area to break out recently amid drought conditions.
The employee, Dariel Vasquez, was killed while fighting a fire in Sterling Forest in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., the State Police said in a statement late Saturday.
Steve Neuhaus, the Orange County executive, said that Mr. Vasquez was helping to clear trees and shrubs, which are fuel for a fire, from a wooded area when a tree fell and hit him.
Mr. Vasquez, who was from Rockland County, had started working for the parks system in May, Mr. Neuhaus said. Mr. Vasquez’s job was not firefighting, but he had been brought in to help with the response.
The State Police statement said Mr. Vasquez was a parks and recreation aid for the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Sterling Forest State Park is about 50 miles northwest of New York City.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said in a statement on Saturday that state officials were working to contain two fires in the park. The larger one was about 300 acres and extended into New Jersey. The smaller one was about nine acres and was near the Appalachian Trail.
Mr. Vasquez was responding to the larger fire when he was killed.
“I commend his dedication to serving and protecting his fellow New Yorkers, and his bravery on the front lines,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement.
It was not clear on Sunday morning to what extent the two fires had been contained. Rain is forecast for Sunday night and officials hoped it would help slow the growth of the fires.
“We’ve been going pretty much nonstop in the last 24 hours trying to put out different fires around the county,” Mr. Neuhaus said.
The nearby town of Warwick, N.Y., said on social media late Saturday that emergency responders were confident that the larger fire did not threaten any homes.
Several other wildfires affected the area this weekend.
In New York, wildfires in New Jersey prompted a statewide smoke advisory on Friday, and a fire in Prospect Park in Brooklyn blanketed New York City in smoke on Saturday.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation placed the city, Rockland County and Westchester County under an air quality alert until midnight on Saturday.
