A brush fire broke out Friday night in Prospect Park, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, amid a drought that has been plaguing the northeastern U.S. for weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New York City Fire Department posted about the fire on X<\/a> at around 8 p.m. Shortly after, it said units were using drone technology to find hot spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The fire’s under control, and there are some hotter spots,” FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker said at a news conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Firefighters would be at Prospect Park all night to ensure the fire is contained and that no fires break out from embers carried on the wind, Tucker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fire was in an \u201cextremely dense\u201d part of Prospect Park on a hill, and there were no structures nearby to be threatened, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cause of the fire is under investigation. <\/strong>NBC New York<\/a> reported there were no injures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDaylight will help us figure out the cause and origin of this fire,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fire highlights the danger from the drought, and officials thanked the person who spotted the fire and called it in to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in an X post Friday<\/a> that his office was monitoring the fire and the FDNY, NYC Emergency Management and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation were on the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest blaze comes amid a weekslong drought in the Northeast<\/a>, brought on by dry and unseasonably warm conditions. A number of fires have broken out in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and windy conditions are heightening the fire risk in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday, “temperatures soared to well above normal readings,” the\u00a0National Weather Service office<\/a>\u00a0in New York said. A cool down forecast to begin late Friday was expected to bring temperatures down to “right around normal<\/a>” Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The FDNY said Friday that New York City was under a drought watch<\/a> \u201cdue to a historic lack of rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n October was one of the driest months on record in the U.S., particularly in the Northeast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Cities like Philadelphia; Newark, New Jersey; Wilmington, Delaware; and Norfolk, Virginia, recorded no rain that month, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center<\/a>, which collects precipitation data from more than 1,400 weather stations across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The entire New York City region was under a red flag warning Friday, the weather service said, with wind gusts up to 30 mph possible. The service warned “fires could start and spread rapidly” and to “avoid any outdoor burning.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services said<\/a> \u201ca combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and dry fuels will significantly elevate fire growth potential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n