[5] According to reports of the state geologist, wildland fires in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey often burned 70,000 to 100,000 acres in any given year.

[6] In an 1896 report, state geologist John Conover Smock estimated New Jersey's loss in timber at a million dollars annually over the previous twenty years and that forest fire was also "a source of great danger to the cranberry plantations".

[9] The state legislature created the New Jersey Forest Fire Service with an act signed into law by Governor Edward C. Stokes on April 18, 1906.

This was supplemented by the U.S. Postmaster General who ordered rural mail carriers to act as fire patrolmen in New Jersey and other states.

From 1933 to 1942, during the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) improved New Jersey's system of state parks and forest for recreation and built firebreaks and fireroads within these tracts for fire prevention.

[11] Because of nature of the fuels and vegetations within the Pine Barrens, the region has experienced many of the state's significant-impact fires that burned a large number of acres and property.

In late April 1922, a fire that burned 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) of Ocean and Monmouth counties also threatened the country estates of wealthy early twentieth-century American businessmen, John D. Rockefeller (near Lakewood), Arthur Brisbane (at Lane's Mills), and George J. Gould's estate known as "Georgian Court" (now the location of Georgian Court University).

In April 1999, Nearly 12,000 acres (49 km2) of forest, wetlands, cedar swamp and cranberry bogs burned after a Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II from the 111th Fighter Wing plane dropped a "dummy" bomb more than a mile from its target.

In June 2001, a 1,600 acres (6 km2) forest fire occurred when an Air National Guard plane dropped a 25-pound practice bomb at the range.

On May 15, 2007, flares dropped from an F-16 belonging to the 177th Fighter Wing set off a large wildfire that consumed more than 18,000 acres (73 km2) of the Pinelands and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

It is believed that shifting winds during a backfire operation took the lives of two fire wardens; and three men from the Civilian Conservation Corps' Company 225.

[2] The remaining portion of the state, 1.1 million acres, comprises urban and densely populated suburban areas in which it is the agency of secondary response—called to assist local firefighting services.

Rural southern New Jersey is dominated by the Pine Barrens, a forest ecoregion with vegetation that fuels volatile wildfires.

The agency states that a majority of this development has been planned and built without due consideration for forest fire protection.

[13]: p.156 [37] In 2014, the most recent year for which figures are available, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service responded to 1,063 wildfire events that destroyed 6,692 acres.

[36] The agency aims to conduct prescribed burns on up to 20,000 acres of wildland each year in the late autumn and winter months between October 1 and March 31.

Because of New Jersey's temperate climate, lightning storms or thunderstorms are typically accompanied by precipitation and as a result few fires are caused or able to spread.

[38] Human causes include: 17.8% caused by arson, 17.4% by children playing with matches or intentionally setting fires, 13.4% from regular equipment use (cars, power lines, lawn mowers, tractors), 7.5% by railroads (hot breaks, exhaust particles, equipment failure), 7% for smokers improperly discarding cigarettes, 7% from recreational campfires, and 5.7% from the illegal burning of debris.

[39] However, because of innovations in fire-fighting technology and through an aggressive policy combining observation, identification, and containment of wildland fires, New Jersey experienced a reduction in the damage caused by incidents through the course of the twentieth century.

[51] Firewardens often conduct or assist in investigations to establish the cause of a wildfire and to assign liability for a person or party responsible for damages or costs.

[55] The Forest Fire Service is the agency responsible for administering and issuing permits for agricultural open burning in order to clear lands for agricultural cultivation and use, pruning and cullings, to remove herbaceous plant life or hedgerows, or to eradicate infested plant life (including invasive species)".

State law prohibits the setting of fire to forests and wildlands, specifically "to start fires anywhere and permit them to spread to forests, thereby, causing damage to or threat to life or property, either accidentally or otherwise, directly or indirectly, in person or by agent, or cause to be burned, waste, fallows, stumps, logs, brush, dry grass, fallen timber or any property, material, or vegetation being grown thereon, or anything that may cause a forest fire".

[57] [58] State regulations prohibit use of fire in the disposal of rubbish, garbage, trade waste, buildings or structures, salvage operations, or the burning of fallen leaves.

[60] The agency often sends teams of firefighters and other resources to fight wildfires in the Western United States as part of a cooperative aid agreement with the U.S. Forest Service that has been in place since 1985.

When resources and assistance is requested for out-of-state incidents, the U.S. Forest Service reimburses the state for all costs associated with the deployment of crews and equipment.

[62] in the summer of 2015, approximately 50 New Jersey Forest Fire Service crewmembers and wardens were deployed to assist on large wildfire incidents in Montana, Oregon, and Washington state.

[69] Towers are staffed with observers during the peak fire months of March, April, May, October, and November, and when wildlands are dry enough to burn.

During World War II, the Lakewood Station was "used to listen to German U-boat communications in the Atlantic Ocean 12 miles to the east".