STAFFORD — The wildfire at the Warren Grove Gunnery Range started this afternoon with a self-defense flare dropped by an F-16 on a training run — a flare that should have gone out long before it hit the ground, according to a New Jersey National Guard spokesman.
That flare ignited a blaze that, fed by dry weather and whipped by a 30-mph southwest wind, has burned close to 12,000 acres in a 20-square-mile area, forced the evacuation of thousands of residents, and burned an undetermined amount of homes.
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