The girlfriend of a 17-year-old arrested in connection with a massive wildfire in New Jersey last month allegedly admitted to a friend that her group started the blaze, court documents show.
“We started the fire,” she wrote to a classmate in a Snapchat message, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by NJ Advance Media.
The unnamed girlfriend, who has not been charged, was reportedly in the area where the fire is believed to have started.
Investigators say she voluntarily sent her classmate a message on April 22, the day officials first spotted the blaze. The classmate then went to police headquarters with her mother and showed the message to detectives.
The Jones Road Wildfire started in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area in Barnegat Township, some 90 miles south of Midtown Manhattan.
Over the past two weeks, the still-going wildfire has burned through more than 15,300 acres. It also forced thousands of evacuations, led the state to declare a state of emergency and triggered an air quality health advisory for the New York City area.
Two suspects — Joseph Kling, 19, and a second New Jersey resident, identified only as a 17-year-old male — have since been arrested on charges of aggravated arson and related offenses in connection with the fire.
Investigators accused both teens of “setting wooden pallets on fire — and then leaving the area without the fire being fully extinguished,” leading to what’s believed to be the Garden State’s second-worst fire in two decades.
Kling, who has been released from detention with an ankle monitor, was scolded by a judge on Monday for lying to law enforcement. While denying responsibility for the fire, he allegedly blamed two fictitious individuals whom he described as “Mexicans,” according to police.
On Tuesday, officials confirmed the blaze was about 90% contained.
