Smoky Brick: Prescribed burn in progress

Brick Township folks can expect the air to be redolent with smoke today, while a prescribed burn in woods near Ridge Road continues.

Township police say that the New Jersey Forest Fire Service initiated the burn in a spot behind the township reservoir, near Sally Ike Road and close to the township public works complex.

The exercise runs counter to the Forest Fire Service's original plans for a cutoff date of April 1 south of Middlesex County. North of that area, burns were to have been completed this past Friday, April 15.

Prescribed burns are targeted for areas of dense, dead underbrush, to reduce the risk of quickly-spreading forest fires, especially near populated areas.