ELLENVILLE – Governor Kathy Hochul Thursday flew over the massive Minnewaska forest fire in the Napanoch area that has been burning since lightning strikes last Saturday.
The lack of rain has fueled the fire that has scorched 270 acres and brought out firefighters from across the Hudson Valley and Quebec.
Hochul has a theory as to why the weather is so dry and the fire is so stubborn.
“I do believe that this is the result of climate change. You go through all these years seeing what happened out west – this extreme weather out west – but places like New York would watch from a distance. We sent people. We would always be the one sending help to those places, and now we’re in a situation where the State of New York is calling on help from others.”
The governor said the State Department of Environmental Conservation is predicting it could take one to two weeks to burn itself out.
Ulster County Executive Patrick Ryan termed the forest fire “scary.”
He praised the support of all of the volunteers fighting the fire as well as the support teams who have been delivering as many as 500 meals per day.
