BRICK, NJ — Record drought conditions in parts of the United States are raising fears of new wildfires and could also threaten drinking water supplies if substantial rains do not fall in the coming months.

Firefighters battled wildfires from California to New York on Wednesday, hampered by high winds and arid landscapes.

“Please take this seriously,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday in declaring a drought warning. “We have a very dry winter ahead of us. »

California crews are making good progress against a major wildfire in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, that broke out a week ago and quickly exploded due to drought. Santa Ana Winds. THE mountain fire was 60% contained on Wednesday.

“Fires will continue to remain within containment limits and no growth is expected,” the state Cal Fire agency said in a report Wednesday, adding that firefighters would remain there and residents could return when it would be “safe to do so”.

The 83 square kilometer fire forced thousands of residents to flee and destroyed more than 215 structures, mostly homes, and damaged at least 210.

Conditions in California were “abnormally dry” but had not reached severe drought levels across most of the state, according to the Nebraska-based National Drought Mitigation Center.

Things were tougher on the East Coast, where efforts to spark a wildfire on the New Jersey-New York border were virtually blocked overnight.

The Jennings Creek Fire remained 30% contained Wednesday morning – as it did Tuesday evening.

It had burned 2,283 acres (3.6 square miles) in Passaic County, New Jersey, and 2,100 acres (3.3 square miles) in Orange County, New York.

Greg McLaughlin, administrator of the New Jersey Forest Fire Department, said the steep mountainous terrain and high winds, coupled with few road access points, made it difficult to fight the fire from the ground. A water-wide helicopter was also used, but the usual array of bulldozers and plows were not effective on this particular fire.

This fire cost his life from a New York State Parks employee who was helping firefighters over the weekend.

Dry conditions in New Jersey and New York are a growing concern, not only for firefighting efforts, but also for the continued availability of drinking water.

New Jersey officials said a drought warning Wednesday, calling for additional voluntary conservation measures and saying they want to avoid imposing mandatory water restrictions.

Two major state reservoirs were at 51% and 45% of capacity Wednesday, enough to keep the taps flowing, but low enough to raise concerns about what could happen with additional weeks or months of low precipitation . A river that provides an additional source of drinking water was at 14% of normal.

Murphy, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, has asked people to take shorter showers, only run the dishwasher when it is full and turn off the water while they brush their teeth.

September and October were the driest two-month periods on record in New Jersey. Since August, the state has received 2 inches (5 cm) of rain when it should have received 0.3 meters.

No significant precipitation was expected in the forecast, officials said.

The ground is also very dry, McLaughlin added. This makes wildfires even more dangerous as they can burn downward, through dry soil and root systems, and last for months.

On a soil dryness scale in which 800 is the highest possible score, New Jersey ranks at 748, meaning the soil is dry nearly 8 inches (20 centimeters) below the surface. This level had never been reached before, McLaughlin said.

A wildfire that started July 4 in New Jersey’s Wharton State Forest by someone using illegal fireworks has long been considered contained. But it has been smoldering underground for four months and could reignite on the surface, McLaughlin said.

“We have to monitor these fires for weeks or months,” he said.

Conditions are also dry in New York, which issued a drought watch last week. Mayor Eric Adams urged residents to take shorter showers, fix dripping faucets and conserve water.

Just 0.01 inch (0.02 centimeters) of rain fell last month in the city’s Central Park, where October normally brings about 4.4 inches (11.2 centimeters) of precipitation, according to National Weather Service records. . Municipal Environmental Protection Department Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala said it was the driest October in over 150 years of records.

Massachusetts declared a drought Tuesday after more than a month of decreasing precipitation.

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Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire contributed to this report.