By james art 
November 3, 2024
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP (Mercer) – Firefighters were working to extinguish a fire burning in the woods along Interstate 295 between Pennington Road (Route 31) and Reed Road Sunday evening (Nov. 3, 2024). Multiple 911 calls about the fire began coming in just before 5:20 p.m. from drivers traveling on the highway. Another call came from a pilot of a passing plane who, after seeing smoke and flames in the woods, notified the air traffic control tower at nearby Trenton-Mercer Airport.
Hopewell Valley fire companies – Pennington, Hopewell and Union-Titusville – responded along with mutual aid from the Ewing and Lawrence Township fire departments and the New Jersey Forest Service. Firefighters initially had trouble accessing the fire. They finally got to it by cutting a road through the woods at the back of Drake Lane, off Pennington Road. Most of the fire was out by 7:15 p.m., and most municipal firefighters were released from the scene by that time.
New Jersey Wildfire Service personnel remained on scene, assisted by a contingent of Pennington firefighters, to reinforce containment lines and conduct a controlled burn to ensure any smoldering embers could spread to fresh fuels and rekindle the flame. That controlled burn created an orange glow in the forest and sent a column of smoke towering over Interstate 295 around 9:30 p.m.
