EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated late Saturday to include a brush fire in Bridgewater and the growing size of the wildfire in West Milford.

Wildfires continued raging across New Jersey on Saturday night, threatening buildings and leaving a blanket of smoke hovering over much of the state.

As of 7:30 p.m., a huge wildfire in West Milford had consumed 2,000 acres and was 0% contained, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said. That fire, dubbed the Jennings Creek Wildfire, started across the New York line and is threatening two homes and eight structures at the historic Long Pond Iron Works in Ringwood, the fire service said.

East Shore Road and Beach Road off Greenwood Lake are now closed, as is the Tranquility Ridge preserve, the fire service said.

A New York state forest ranger died Saturday battling the wildfire not far from the New Jersey state line in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., according to the Plattekill (N.Y.) Fire Department. The Mid Hudson News reported a tree fell on the ranger during the blaze. The ranger was airlifted to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the report said.

But the West Milford fire was merely one of several burning in the state amid a severe drought.

Late Saturday, a new blaze was reported in Bridgewater, where a large brush fire popped up in the wooded area between North Mountain Avenue and Morning Glory Road. Bridgewater police warned residents to stay out of the area and that evacuations of residences were possible.

Elsewhere, firefighters spent a second day battling a stubborn wildfire off Cannonball Road in Pompton Lakes. That fire, which has consumed 175 acres, was 75% contained as of Saturday night. All told, 55 structures had been threatened by that blaze, but there have been no evacuations, officials said.

Also on Saturday, firefighters in Englewood Cliffs returned to douse a flare-up of a wildfire that scorched an area near the Palisades on Friday. That fire encompassed 39 acres and was 75% contained as of Saturday night. No structures were threatened by the blaze.

Parched conditions led to other brush fires in New Gretna in Burlington County, Merchantville in Camden and Rockaway Township in Morris.

A wildfire that destroyed 350 acres in Jackson had been contained, but Stump Tavern Road remains closed, police said. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office announced Saturday night that it had charged a Brick Township man with arson for allegedly firing his shotgun and sparking the wildfire.

Smoke, pushed by blustery conditions, blanketed the state on Saturday, and the air quality was listed as unhealthy. The smoke was so heavy in northern parts of the state that it threatened to cancel some youth soccer games.

Although some rain is finally in the forecast for late Sunday and early Monday, the National Weather Service says it expects only a quarter to a half inch — which will be welcome but won’t be enough to solve the state’s serious drought woes.

Most areas of New Jersey have had no substantial rain since August, and no rain at all since late September. The lack of rain has pushed most of New Jersey into a severe drought. Three counties in the state’s Pinelands region are in an “extreme drought,” which is even more serious than a severe drought and rare in New Jersey.

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