A massive brush fire exacerbated by the city’s ongoing drought destroyed about four acres of Manhattan’s Inwood Hill Park, FDNY officials said Thursday.
The raging blaze, which began about 3 p.m. Wednesday, tore its way through about four acres of parkland near W. 218 St. as upper Manhattan was covered in thick grey smoke for most of the day.
Responding firefighters fought the blaze through the night, lugging hose lines from the nearby Harlem River.
“We had many challenges due to the terrain and elevation and water issues,” FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods said at a press conference Wednesday evening.
“There aren’t any fire hydrants in the forest so we had to draft water from the Harlem River and stretch hose lines 150 feet or more up a hill to put out the blaze.”
Multiple trees collapsed around firefighters as they fought the brush fire, Woods said.
“It was a very treacherous conditions for our firefighters,” added FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker, who is calling on residents to be mindful of of sparking brush fires as the drought continues. “There was very significant forestry and very significant grade hill.”
The FDNY flew drones above the treetops to map out how far the fire had spread and to identify hot spots, Tucker said.
The blaze was finally snuffed out around 12:30 a.m. but re-ignited in the park around 2 a.m. closer to the Henry Hudson Parkway.
Firefighters again scrambled to put out the blaze as it threatened an MTA Bridges and Tunnel facility near the Henry Hudson Bridge, FDNY officials said.
The blaze was put out by Thursday morning but the FDNY still had a “fire line” in operation where units look for flare ups and hot spots.
More than 140 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the blaze, with no injuries reported.
NYC Parks & Recreation Manhattan Borough Commissioner Tricia Shimamura called Inwood Hill Park “one of our most sacred forests” where descendants of the Lenape indigenous tribe visit each year to plant beach plums.
“This is a very sacred place, a very treasured park,” she said.
The FDNY battled a smaller brush fire in Queens Wednesday night officials said.
Over the past two weeks, the ongoing dry weather has sparked a record 215 brush fires, FDNY officials said.
The number of brush fires this year was significantly higher than in previous years, FDNY officials said, noting that, over the last three years, firefighters usually battle about 200 brush fires during the entire month of October. This year the city has seen more brush fires in half the time, in the period from Oct. 29 to this past Tuesday.
