Brooklyn, New York – A burnt, rusty microwave oven, the skeleton of a charred lawn chair, a pile of melted clothes and burnt Bible fragments lay ominously on the forest floor next to burnt pine cones.

In a small clearing in the northwest section of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Thursday, under a canopy of blackened tree trunks, the post-apocalyptic consequences of the fire that engulfed a homeless camp in the park’s forest were still on display. While a fire truck was slowly circling the park, a squirrel was running among the fallen autumn leaves and dried soil.

About a week after the brush fire, 26-year-old Brooklyn media arts teacher Jake Catalanotto was seen documenting the devastation with his camera as he curiously scanned the fire area, which was about the size of two football fields. The lifelong Brooklyn resident was angered by what he saw.

“There are burnt electronics, cans, spray cans and mattresses,” Catalanotto, 26, told Al Jazeera, describing the scorched hellscape. “It’s a little something you put on the fire to cook on. Pots and pans.”

Please be careful when entering the park. Open fires and smoking are prohibited in the park, and any fire should be reported to 911 immediately. Prospect Park Alliance + @nycparks We are assessing the damage in the area affected by the fire + we will share ways to help with the community. pic.twitter.com/37B3ufK27y

— Prospect Park (@prospect_park) 9 November 2024

‘I pray for rain’

October was the driest month on record in New York City, with a record-breaking 229 brush fires in the city’s five boroughs between Oct. 29 and Nov. 12, according to city officials. Extraordinarily dry conditions caused by one of the longest droughts in history have turned most of the sprawling city’s parks and the state’s forested areas into a giant ash bin, alarming communities, politicians and fire crews.

On Wednesday, a two-alarm brush fire in northern Manhattan’s Inwood Hill Park neighborhood caused the George Washington Bridge to be shrouded in clouds of smoke. A day earlier, Long Island volunteer firefighter Jonathan Quiles was arrested on arson charges for allegedly intentionally starting a brush fire in Medford, New York. The 5,000-acre fire along Greenwood Lake on the border of New York and New Jersey killed a park employee, threatened the evacuation of several homes, displaced wildlife, degraded air quality and caused widespread panic.

In response to the increasing fires, authorities have imposed a statewide burn ban through November 30.

Governor Kathy Hochul said of the statewide precautions: “Now is not the time to light a fire outside, and I urge everyone to heed our warnings as we continue to take the necessary precautions to keep all New Yorkers safe.”

New York City has also banned outdoor grilling in the Big Apple due to bone dryness.

“We’re praying for rain,” embattled Mayor Eric Adams told reporters at the site of the brush fire last Friday. “We really need all these leaves and dry ground and trees and rain.”

‘There will never be another you’

No one was injured in the fire in Brooklyn. Tight-lipped authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire.

More than 100 city firefighters had descended on Prospect Park to battle the blaze, which destroyed one hectare (two acres) of the park’s Nethermead meadow area. Authorities at the scene said steep terrain and unusually windy conditions initially hindered firefighters’ “intensive” efforts. Viral footage of the city park fire, taken shortly after it broke out, showed huge plumes of smoke rising above a treeline illuminated by the eerie orange glow of the fire flames. Soon the smell of smoke could be heard for miles.

“The first image shared when the fire was first reported was horrifying,” Morgan Monaco, president of the Prospect Park Alliance, told Al Jazeera.

Plant material covering the forest floor has been burned, and many burned trees will need to be removed in the coming weeks and months, park officials said. The bare area was now at risk of soil erosion and possible flooding.

“We really need to stabilize the area,” explained Monaco, who blamed the fire on drought as a result of climate change. “We hope to be able to start planting next spring. “But it will take several planting seasons to replant most of the lost plant material.”

Monaco said park staff are, for now, closely monitoring any activity that could lead to new fires. He encouraged New Yorkers to do the same.

“We encourage New Yorkers to be vigilant and call 911 if they see someone smoking or barbecuing in the park,” he said. “We need people to really understand the dire consequences of any fire, any smoking, any open flame in any park that causes such a threat.”

Monaco declined to comment on reports that vagabonds living in a forested homeless camp may have been responsible for the bush fire.

But days later, parkgoers returned to Prospect Park. Joggers, cyclists and dads pushing strollers filled the roads and trails of Prospect Park on Thursday. New sights and smells greeted them. Barbecues at the park have since been covered with plastic garbage bags in compliance with the city’s grill ban. The smell of the campfire was still lingering.

Along the fence next to the hill where the fire was burning, some New Yorkers had pinned strange notes in solidarity, praising both the park and the firefighters battling the blaze.

“Prospect Park, we will fight for better climate policy so future generations can know your beauty!” read an anonymous note.

“Dear park, someone who knows how much peace and beauty is at risk. There will never be another you.”

Shoot in your ‘backyard’

The threat of wildfires was new to many New Yorkers more accustomed to hurricanes this time of year.

“This is the last forest in Brooklyn and is under threat from wildfires,” Brooklyn teacher Catalanotto said after exploring the burn area in Prospect Park. “I didn’t expect this. The climate crisis is very close.”

Other Brooklynites echoed that sentiment.

“It was shocking and surprising,” Flatbush kitchen manager Kat Teague, 43, also told Al Jazeera. “I never thought there would be a forest fire in Prospect Park, in the concrete jungle, right? “This is so crazy.”

The brush fire, which broke out in New York’s most populous borough of about 2.7 million people, has understandably left others feeling “concerned” about the insidious impact of climate change.

“It’s weird because before, whenever there were any smoke or fire warnings, they were always pretty far away from New York or in the metropolitan areas,” said Noah, a 24-year-old student who lives in Brooklyn. “Climate change seems to have become an increasingly big problem. Literally in your backyard.”

‘The mountains were covered with fire’

The massive Jennings Creek wildfire, which has been burning for days on the border of New York and New Jersey, has inflicted further damage on surrounding communities and habitats.

The fire killed at least one person and left residents uneasy; many are carrying their bags and living under threat of eviction. Last Saturday, 18-year-old New York State Parks worker Dariel Velasquez died while “fighting” a wildfire when a tree collapsed on him. No other deaths, serious injuries or structure losses were reported.

As of Thursday, the fire was 75 percent under control, according to the New Jersey Forest Service. Blackhawk and Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters, which dumped thousands of liters of water into the burning area, slowed the spread of the fire.

At night recently — as the sun set over Lake Greenwood — residents had to absorb the most dramatic, even terrifying, images of the Jennings Creek wildfire and the true extent of its devastation. At the height of the weekend wildfire, miles of bush and the surrounding lake were lit up by dancing flames.

“It was so red, the mountains were covered in fire,” Randal Rodriguez, 39, owner of lakeside hot dog restaurant Paul’s Place, told Al Jazeera. “I was in shock; I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

Saying that the fires have also destroyed the businesses in his restaurant in recent days, Rodriguez admitted that he had difficulty adapting to the constantly smoky conditions.

“There’s already been a lot of smoke for several days,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a little hard to breathe. You feel like you can’t breathe. It’s really strong smoke. If you stay for a few minutes, it will affect you, your eyes, your nose.”

Medical experts warn that wildfire smoke, which contains a variety of pollutants including particulate matter and carbon monoxide, can have both short- and long-term effects on a person’s health and respiratory system, including nose and throat irritation, wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. warns. difficulty breathing. It may also aggravate pre-existing medical or respiratory conditions such as asthma and COPD.

Greenwood Lake resident Dave Kozuha, 44, who lives a few miles from the fire, likened it to “Dante’s Inferno.”

“Lake Greenwood was located between the mountains on both sides of the lake and the whole ridge was in flames, it was literally fire jumping from the top, the whole ridge was lit up,” Kozuha told Al Jazeera. “It was surreal to see something like that.”

Kozuha, who runs a local coffee shop, said he knows many people who voluntarily evacuated their homes. He said communities around the lake live in constant fear of being evacuated or worse, potential displacement if the fire spreads to their homes.

“Right now it’s just clouds of smoke rising,” Kozuha added. “If the wind changes, it may come this way. “This is a danger, there is no doubt about that.”

Kozuha stated that she was trying to stay calm and that she had not lost any sleep yet due to the forest fire that had been going on for days, and that she did not have time anyway. Greenwood Lake Roasters Craft Coffee, the local java purveyor’s company, is providing firefighters battling blazes with free coffee and caffeine around the clock.

“We are doing everything we can to contain this threat to our community,” Kozuha said. “(We) are trying to be strong, but we feel the pain of loss of life and potential harm. Fire is a very powerful force and we must stand strong against it. “We will defeat together.”