The wildfire sweeping across Ocean County has grown to 12,500 acres, but was 40% contained as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, fire officials said.

The massive fire — one of the biggest New Jersey has seen in 20 years — forced thousands to evacuate Tuesday. But those evacuation orders were lifted and no injuries or damaged homes have been reported.

“We continue to work using our air fleet, including bucket drops from helicopters, which will continue until nightfall,” said John Cecil, Assistant Commissioner for State Parks, Forests and Historic Sites.

Eighteen structures are still under threat from the fire, Cecil said.

The state Forest Fire Service is investigating the origin of the fire along with local authorities, including the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, authorities said.

The lone shelter that remains open is expected to close later tonight, Cecil said. Route 532 is expected to reopen soon.

The fire — called the “Jones Road Wildfire” — sparked in the Greenwood Wildlife Management Area Tuesday morning and quickly spread across thousands of acres, causing 3,000 evacuations. It also threatened farms and closed down a 17-mile stretch of the Garden State Parkway in both directions for hours.

A map released by New Jersey Forest Fire Services shows the expected area the fire will reach before its fully contained.NJ DEP

Acting Gov. Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency in Ocean County Wednesday.

Evacuation orders for residents were lifted Wednesday morning with only 20 structures still threatened by the fire, officials with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said.

At one point, about 1,300 homes were threatened, according to officials.

One building — Liberty Door & Awning on Old Shore Road in Lacey — caught fire in an industrial complex. Materials housed outside another building also burned. They were the only reported damage to structures as of Wednesday afternoon, state officials said.

Farms and animals needed to be evacuated from the area as the flames spread.

Oyster Creek nuclear plant was threatened during the fire and officials cut power to the plant so firefighters could safely fight the blaze, a utility company spokesman said.

Power had been restored to thousands of homes and businesses. Just over 2,500 outages were still reported Wednesday afternoon, down from a high of 25,000 Tuesday night.

Just over 1,800 customers in Lacey and only 40 in Barnegat were still without power at 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to JCP&L’s outage tracker.

Comcast said it opened up 10,000 wifi hotspots across Ocean County Wednesday to help people impacted by the fire.

Many shelters had emptied out by Wednesday afternoon including one at Southern Regional High School, which was later moved to St. Mary’s Parish in Manahawkin to offer a warming and cooling station for evacuees, officials said.

Air quality from smoke blown across the region remained an issue and the Red Cross and Ocean County Office of Emergency Mangement were handing out N-95 masks at the Barnegat Township Recreation Center, authorities said.

Winds that drove the fire on Tuesday subsided Wednesday, but were still strong enough to create air quality alerts as far away as Cape May County, authorities said.

The wildfire is one of the largest in New Jersey in the past 20 years. However, it is still smaller than a June 2022 fire that scorched about 15,000 acres in Wharton State Forest in the Pine Barrens in Burlington and Atlantic counties.

That fire, known as the Mullica River Wildfire, was believed to be sparked by an unattended campfire.

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Matthew Enuco may be reached at [email protected]. Follow Matt on X