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Second teen charged in New Jersey forest fire as rain should help douse New York blaze

A second teenager was charged with intentionally setting a wildfire in a New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia as “significant” rainfall was expected to help douse a stubborn wildfire burning on the New Jersey-New York border Wednesday.

Many parts of the Northeast have been under red flag alerts, with firefighters responding to hundreds of brush fires in tinder-dry and windy conditions. Officials have said numerous prolonged rainstorms are needed in parts of New England as well as New Jersey and New York, which are the driest in between 120 to 150 years.

And on the West Coast, weeks of dry conditions that raised wildfire risks were erased by a powerful storm known as a bomb cyclone that battered Washington, Oregon and Northern California with strong winds and heavy rain. Northwest of Los Angeles, crews were still mopping up a major blaze burning for two weeks that destroyed 240 structures. The Mountain Fire, which erupted Nov. 6 in Ventura County, was about 98% contained on Wednesday.

Police in Evesham Township said Wednesday they have arrested a 14-year-old from Marlton in connection with an Oct. 30 wildfire that burned about 52 acres. On Nov. 7, they charged another youth, also from Marlton, with setting that same fire. The latest arrest was made Tuesday and announced on Wednesday. Both are charged with aggravated arson, and causing or risking widespread injury or damage.

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