Fires in NYC parks are common. The drought is making them bigger and more frequent.

Last weekend’s blaze that scorched 2 acres of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park highlighted a recurring problem in New York City parks that has become significantly more dangerous due to a historic drought: brush fires.

Parks department data obtained by Gothamist through a Freedom of Information Law request shows firefighters responded to more than 400 fires in city parks between 2020 and August 2024.

The FDNY said on Wednesday it had responded to at least 229 brush fires since Oct. 29, more than at any other time in city history over such a short period. Yesterday, firefighters were battling a brush fire in Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan.

Mayor Eric Adams has imposed a drought watch on New York City that asks people to conserve water. Grilling in parks is also banned.

The danger of dry parkland was laid bare last Friday evening, when a fire blew through a wooded section of Prospect Park near the Nethermead, a sprawling meadow in the park’s center.

Data shows fires are nothing new for the park, but they usually don’t move so fast. There were 13 reports of fires in Prospect Park since 2020, including one in July, when the parks department received a report of a campfire in the Nethermead.

In March 2023, there was a 250-square-foot brush fire in the park. And this past May, the parks department received a report of fires being regularly lit in a small field along Prospect Park Southwest. Parks records noted someone had “seen the remnants” of that fire “every morning this week, and it is getting larger.” The report, which didn’t indicate who provided the tip, stated the embers from the blaze were found near “loads of food, paper and drug trash.”

Fires started in trash cans, in bathrooms or on benches are the most commonly reported fires in city parks, according to the data. At least 182 of the fires reported in the records were identified by parks workers as brush fires, records show.

But those brush fires reached a new level of risk in Prospect Park last week. Whipping winds fueled the blaze, which badly damaged trees, Prospect Park Alliance President Morgan Monaco said. Some of the trees will need to be cut down because the fire damage made them susceptible to disease and invasive species, she said.

“It’s going to take a lot of time to rebuild some of the mature trees that we lost,” said Monaco. The first order of business is assessing the health of the trees that were burned.”

The FDNY said the fire’s cause was still under investigation. On Tuesday, the charred remnants of an apparent encampment were still at the burn site. A scorched umbrella was among a pile of debris burned by the flames. Blackened pots and pans were strewn about, along with burned beer bottles, a barbeque grill and a fan.

Parkgoers said homeless people lived in Prospect Park, but blamed the drought for the blaze.

“There are some people who do kind of camp out in the park,” said Vanessa Baptiste, who lives near the park. “It’s kind of dry right now, so it could be a little bit of everything.”

William Ben Brooks, 65, was photographing birds near where the fire began.

“This could have been a cigarette. I think there might be a political component to blaming it on the homeless,” he said. “In New York, you don’t get an idea of what a drought does, because you turn on the tap and you’ve got your water. …We’re so lucky it was only 2 acres.”

In a statement, Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said the recent fire in Prospect Park underscored the seriousness of following guidelines about the drought.

“We will do a full assessment of the damage and work with our partners at the Prospect Park Alliance to restore the forested area,” she said.

Monaco said the risk of another fire remained high. “We are very concerned around the impact that this drought has on susceptibility for there to be a fire,” she said. “All it takes is one ember, if left unattended, to really take over a whole section of the park.”

Near the burn site, people had left notes addressed to the park itself.

“Dear park, thank you for always protecting us so much better than we protect you. Love, always,” one note read.