Wildfires Rage Through Jersey’s Pine Barrens

A wildfire that investigators said may have been intentionally set swept through nearly 20,000 acres of southern New Jersey’s Pine Barrens and came within 50 feet of some homes before it was stopped Wednesday.

Elsewhere, fires were burning in Virginia, where a lack of rain has left forests tinder dry.

In New Jersey, firefighters spent two days battling wind-driven flames that raced through parched woods of pine and scrub oak. No one was injured, and two or three storage trailers were the only structures reported destroyed.