By Brendan O’Brien and Rich McKay

(Reuters) – Strengthening winds and bone-dry conditions were hampering firefighters working to contain a stubborn blaze burning in a wooded area along the New York-New Jersey state border about 50 miles northwest of New York City.

The Jennings Creek Fire, located on the border of Passaic County, New Jersey, and New York’s Orange County, burned nearly 5,000 acres (2,023 ha) of brushwood and thick forest near Greenwood Lake and killed a park employee.

The fire, which started late last week, is 20% contained, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said on Facebook Tuesday. The cause of the fire could not be determined.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a news conference near the fire scene that the conditions were “going to create turmoil, chaos and a lot of uncertainty that we don’t need right now.” He said about 15 fires are burning in his state during an unusually intense wildfire season.

More than 375 firefighters set up fire lines to protect homes and contain the blaze as New York State Police and National Guard helicopters poured water on the fire. Hochul said no structures were threatened Tuesday, but some residents in the rural area were evacuated.

The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag warning covering parts of New York and New Jersey. Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Winds in the region are expected to reach speeds of 45 miles (72 km) per hour and humidity is expected to be around 20 percent.

“The chances of more rain over the next week don’t look good,” said William Churchill, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

He said conditions were expected to improve slightly on Wednesday as the winds decreased.

The region is in the midst of one of the driest autumns in history. Monday received the first measurable rainfall since mid-September, bringing some but short-lived relief to firefighters.

“The conditions we face are still pretty dire,” Hochul said, urging residents to avoid outdoor fires.

The fire caused the death of one person. Dariel Vasquez, 18, a New York state forest ranger volunteer, was killed by a falling tree while fighting a fire Saturday, authorities said.

In New Jersey, 10 separate wildfires burned in different parts of the state last week; One of them was at Englewood Cliffs, across the Hudson River above New York City, where haze was visible and the air smelled of smoke throughout the weekend.

Other fires in New Jersey were much smaller than the Jennings Creek fire and were largely contained, according to fire officials.

Northern New Jersey was upgraded to “extreme” fire danger Tuesday. The southern third of the state is at a “high” level, while the danger in central New Jersey is rated “very high,” the state’s forestry website said.

Wildfire outbreaks are a relatively common occurrence in the West, but East Coast fires are unusual. In California, firefighters have slowly conquered the 20,630-acre (8,350-hectare) Mountain Fire burning about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. As of Tuesday, it was 48% contained.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Frank McGurty and Jonathan Oatis)