Authorities arrested the 19-year-old from Waretown, New Jersey, and charged him with arson and aggravated arson in the fire that’s still burning in southern New Jersey that they described as started with “an improperly extinguished bonfire.”

Authorities have charged a man with arson after they say he set wooden pallets on fire and failed to properly put them out in New Jersey's Pine Barrens, sparking an ongoing wildfire.

A fast-spreading wildfire in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey has burned 8,500 acres, forcing 3,000 residents to evacuate and shutting down a major stretch of the Garden State Parkway, reports The New York Times.