An improperly extinguished bonfire has been identified as the cause of a blaze that had burned 15,200 acres of Pine Barrens in southern Ocean County as of Thursday afternoon. An investigation determined that Kling set ablaze wooden pallets and then left the area before the fire was fully extinguished,

Most of the residents who were forced to evacuate due to the Jones Road Wildfire in Ocean County, New Jersey​, were allowed to return home on Wednesday.

Joseph Kling, 19, of the Waretown section of Ocean Township, was charged Wednesday with aggravated arson and arson in what is being called the Jones Road Wildfire, which has burned more than 20 square miles of the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust’s Forked River Mountains Wilderness Area since Tuesday morning.