{"id":10115,"date":"2025-04-24T12:27:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T16:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=10115"},"modified":"2025-04-24T12:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T16:27:48","slug":"investigators-charge-ocean-county-teen-with-arson-in-jones-road-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2025\/04\/investigators-charge-ocean-county-teen-with-arson-in-jones-road-wildfire\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigators Charge Ocean County Teen With Arson in &#8216;Jones Road&#8217; Wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10116\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kling.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"Joseph Kling (Photo: Ocean County Jail)\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"Joseph Kling (Photo: Ocean County Jail)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10116\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10116\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kling.jpg\" alt=\"Joseph Kling (Photo: Ocean County Jail)\" width=\"480\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kling.jpg 480w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kling-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10116\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joseph Kling (Photo: Ocean County Jail)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A local teen has been charged with starting the fire in the Pine Barrens of Ocean County that has burnt thousands of acres and forced the evacuation of residents in multiple municipalities.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer and the state Department of Environmental Protection said they used GPS mapping to trace the origin of the blaze to Joseph Kling, 19, of Ocean Township (Waretown), was charged with aggravated arson and simple arson in connection with the wildfire that started in Waretown on April 22, 2025. It became known as the \u201cJones Road\u201d fire after the road \u2013 some portions paved, some unpaved and running through the <a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/09\/ocean-county-to-buy-preserve-forked-river-mountains-for-15m\/\">Forked River Mountains<\/a> \u2013 that spans a long distance in the southern portion of the county.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement issued Thursday morning, authorities believe Kling was the individual responsible for setting wooden pallets on fire \u2013 and then leaving the area without the fire being fully extinguished. Kling was taken into custody at Ocean Township (Waretown) Police Headquarters; he was thereafter transported to the Ocean County Jail, where he is presently lodged pending a detention hearing.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10117\" style=\"width: 2058px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GpPZZ6aWoAEZJYN.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"The Jones Road fire, April 2025. (Credit: NJDEP\/ X)\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"The Jones Road fire, April 2025. (Credit: NJDEP\/ X)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10117\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10117\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GpPZZ6aWoAEZJYN.jpg\" alt=\"The Jones Road fire, April 2025. (Credit: NJDEP\/ X)\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GpPZZ6aWoAEZJYN.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GpPZZ6aWoAEZJYN-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GpPZZ6aWoAEZJYN-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GpPZZ6aWoAEZJYN-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GpPZZ6aWoAEZJYN-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10117\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Jones Road fire, April 2025. (Credit: NJDEP\/ X)<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WILDFIRE UPDATE: Jones Road Wildfire \u2013 Ocean & Lacey Townships, Ocean County<\/p>\n<p>New Jersey Forest Fire Service continues to make progress containing a wildfire burning in Ocean & Lacey townships, Ocean County.<\/p>\n<p>SIZE & CONTAINMENT<br \/>\ud83d\udd25 15,000 acres<br \/>\ud83d\udd25 50% contained <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oS2L9OUPL6\">pic.twitter.com\/oS2L9OUPL6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 New Jersey Forest Fire Service (@njdepforestfire) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/njdepforestfire\/status\/1915410420581503224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 24, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>As of April 24, 2025, the fire has burned approximately 15,000 acres in Waretown and Lacey townships, and has destroyed a commercial building. The fire was first spotted on April 22, 2025, at approximately 9:45 a.m., when the Cedar Bridge Fire Tower located a column of smoke coming from the area of Jones Road and Bryant Road in Ocean Township. Upon arrival, emergency personnel observed a fire within the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust\u2019s Forked River Mountains Wilderness Area, which is on the east side of Jones Road. They then used GPS software and location-finding tools to narrow down their search for its origin.<\/p>\n<p>Fire officials were planning a press conference at 4 p.m. Thursday to provide an update.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2025\/04\/investigators-charge-ocean-county-teen-with-arson-in-jones-road-wildfire\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A local teen has been charged with starting the fire in the Pine Barrens of Ocean County that has burnt thousands of acres and forced the evacuation of residents in multiple municipalities. Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer and the state Department of Environmental Protection said they used GPS mapping to trace the origin of the blaze to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1080,689,2034,2033,1933,11,1807],"class_list":["post-10115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-police-fire-courts","tag-featured","tag-forked-river-mountains","tag-jones-road-fire","tag-joseph-kling","tag-pine-barrens","tag-toms-river-nj-news","tag-wildfire"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/klingbg.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10119,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions\/10119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}