Well, that wildfire is just one of hundreds.

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service has had to respond to in the last month that have come amid an unprecedented wave of bone dry weather that's led water supply levels to drop, causing the state today to declare an official drought warning for the first time in eight years.

And while that doesn't call for any mandatory water use bans or restrictions, some utility companies like American Water are taking it upon themselves to issue mandatory conservation notices to all customers.

Ted Goldberg has the latest on the drought and what the state wants residents to do to help.

We take water for granted.

But DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette is not, as his agency has called, a drought warning for the state of New Jersey.

A warning condition is an administrative tool that impacts supply side actions, not consumer side actions.

And the warning enables the DEP to order changes to passing flues and streams, to reservoir releases and other actions by water utilities to preserve and balance supplies.

The driest two month stretch in state history has led leaders to ask people but not demand that they use less water.

From Governor Phil Murphy to liters of water utilities, the big picture takeaway is that every one of us needs to do whatever we can to conserve water.

To that point.

And it goes without saying this is not the time to be lighting outdoor fires either.

We simply cannot risk discontinue primarily outdoor irrigation, which uses a large amount of water from shorter showers to using your dishwasher when fully loaded to reducing our water use and winterizing your irrigation system.

All of these actions can collectively help preserve our state's valuable water resource.

Fixing leaks in your home, conserving your use it blow through to shorter showers or turning off the water when you brush your teeth to running full loads to maximize the efficiency of dishwashers and washing machines.

The drought has depleted water supplies at reservoirs statewide.

The Manasquan and one acute reservoirs usually have a lot more water, and dry conditions have been blamed for the spread of wildfire.

Earlier this week, Assistant Division Fire Warden Chris Franek explained how the Jennings Creek wildfire spread in West Milford.

We are currently in historical numbers for our critical fuels or the forest floor being dried out, and we're seeing stuff that we haven't seen in quite some time here in New Jersey.

The numbers are frankly staggering.

Since early October, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service has responded to 537 fires.

To put that in context, it is 500 more fires than we saw during the exact same period last year.

Leaders are also asking people to use common sense.

A wildfire in Jackson started when someone shot illegal incendiary rounds from a shotgun.

Please be careful with fire.

Please ensure that their woodstove, ashes, fireplace, ashes are contained in fireproof container.

Steel containers.

Don't dispose of these things in a careless manner in the woods.

We can't get inside of somebody's shower, So we're just going to have some of this, or a lot of it, in fact, has to be folks doing the right thing for the the overall good of the order.

But the very fact we're raising this from a watch to a warning.

That in and of itself does not just indicate technical steps that are being taken, but it indicates a level of seriousness.

While nobody likes the thought of the government in their shower, the future forecast is also fairly bleak, with little precipitation in the cards this week.

We need several months of at least average rain, if not substantially above average rain in order for us to emerge from these conditions.

If the drought gets worse, we could see a drought emergency and that could bring more stringent regulations as to how people use water statewide.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.