In New York, Reporting on Four Fires in Four Days

The view was hazy, the hulking trees barely visible through the smoke. A campfire-like smell was wafting through the air vents of my car. Helicopters whirred overhead as they drew water from a lake.

I had found what I had been looking for: the Jennings Creek Fire.

I had made my way up to Orange County, N.Y., near the New Jersey border, from my home in the Bronx to report on the blaze, which had burned some 5,000 acres in the two states. It was the third of four fires in the New York area that I would write about over the course of just four days.

In June, I joined The New York Times’s Newsroom Fellowship Program to cover breaking news for the Metro desk. The fellowship is a yearlong program for early-career journalists, who work in the newsroom and receive specialized training.

As a native New Yorker I knew just how interesting the subject matter of the city could be. But I never imagined becoming a somewhat seasoned wildfire reporter in a matter of days.

It has been an exceptionally dry autumn in the Northeastern United States, and New York City has been under a drought warning for the first time in over 20 years. The landscape is dry, and sparks catch easily. If things worsen, the next steps will include a drought emergency and mandatory water restrictions.

My coverage of fires started on a Friday night, with a string of alerts, messages and photos that surfaced online: Smoke was billowing above Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I made a number of calls to city officials to find out what was happening, and quickly wrote a news story.