BRICK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s governor has issued a drought warning. Black Hawk helicopters pulled water from a lake and dumped it into a burning forest in upstate New York. A park in Manhattan caught fire. And authorities in two states on Wednesday announced criminal charges against people accused of committing some of the killings forest fires who have ravaged the northeastern US the past few weeks.

The actions came as conditions in some northeastern states are the driest in nearly 120 years forest fires continue to burn in places where no significant rain has fallen since August. Meanwhile, dry conditions from coast to coast contributed to the spread of wildfires, especially in Southern California.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s drought declaration asked people to take voluntary conservation measures such as taking shorter showers, turning off the tap while brushing teeth and waiting until the dishwasher is full to run it. But it did not include mandatory restrictions on water use, which would be introduced in the event of a drought emergency, the highest alert the government can impose.

New Jersey is not yet at the point where communities are in danger of running out of water to drink or fight fires. And the state wants to prevent it from happening.

“Please take this seriously,” Murphy said. “We have a very dry winter ahead of us.”

The dry weather has caused a wave of brush and fires in a part of the country that rarely sees them at this level.

Fire crews continued their efforts to contain a wildfire in a forest on the New Jersey-New York border that has destroyed about 12 square miles (20 square kilometers) in the two states.

No homes were damaged, but Greg McLaughlin, an administrator with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, said rugged hilly terrain, combined with few road access points, made it difficult to fight the fire from the ground. Water dropping helicopters were deployed in both states. And firefighters in New York took advantage of the changing wind direction on Wednesday by starting a controlled series of fires to burn away brush and leaves that could serve as fuel.

About 30 miles away in New York City, a wildfire broke out in a park at the northern tip of Manhattan, sending smoke pouring across the Big Apple. The city’s fire department has responded to a record number of wildfires in the past two weeks.

“Due to a significant lack of rainfall, the threat of rapidly spreading wildfires, fueled by dry vegetation and windy conditions, poses a real threat to our members and our city,” Fire Commissioner Robert S. Tucker said in a statement.

Late Wednesday, police in the Philadelphia suburb of Evesham Township said they had charged a juvenile with intentionally setting an Oct. 30 fire that burned less than a tenth of a square mile. The juvenile, whose age was not released, was arrested on Nov. 7 and taken to a juvenile detention facility.

On New York’s Long Island, a 20-year-old volunteer firefighter was charged Tuesday with intentionally lighting a brush fire, damaging a parked car, Suffolk County police said in a news release.

Dry conditions from coast to coast contributed to the spread of wildfires.

Across the country, California was making good progress in battling a major wildfire in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, that broke out a week ago and quickly exploded in size due to drought. Santa Ana wind. The Mountain fire was 60% under control on Wednesday.

The 83-square-kilometer fire has forced thousands of residents to flee and destroyed more than 215 structures, most of them homes, and damaged at least 210.

The fires in the Northeast have not led to major evacuations, but a Connecticut firefighter died last month while battling a wildfire and the blaze on the New York-New Jersey border. claimed his life of an 18-year-old New York state parks employee who assisted firefighters last weekend.

Dry conditions in the northeastern US are a growing concern, not only for firefighting efforts, but also for the continued availability of drinking water.

Two major reservoirs in New Jersey were at 51% and 45% of capacity on Wednesday, enough to keep the water taps open but low enough to raise concerns about what might happen if there are further weeks or months of little rain . One river that is a supplementary source of drinking water was 14% of normal.

September and October were the driest two-month period on record in New Jersey. Since August, the state has received 2 inches of rain, when it should have received 0.3 feet. There was no significant rainfall in the foreseeable forecast, officials said.

New York City has issued a drought warning last week. Mayor Eric Adams called on residents to take shorter showers, fix dripping taps and save water in other ways.

Only 0.02 inches of rain fell last month in the city’s Central Park, which normally sees about 11.2 inches of precipitation in October. New York said it was the driest October in more than 150 years.

Massachusetts declared a drought on Tuesday after more than a month of reduced rainfall.

The soil is also bone dry, McLaughlin added. This makes forest fires even more dangerous because they can burn through dry soil and root systems and last for months.

On a scale of soil dryness where 800 is the highest possible score, New Jersey ranks at 748, meaning the soil is dry nearly 8 inches below the surface. That level had never been reached before, McLaughlin said.

A wildfire that broke out in New Jersey’s Wharton State Forest on July 4 due to someone using illegal fireworks has long been considered under control. But it has been smoldering underground for four months and could flare up again above ground, McLaughlin said.

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Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire contributed to this report.