The blaze in the borough’s “most ancient forest” was the latest in a series of brush fires in the metro area amid record drought conditions.

NEW YORK-- A brush fire at Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan broke out again overnight ... Crews had to use water from the Harlem River to spray the side of a hill, and they stretched hose lines over 150 feet up a hill. "Very treacherous conditions ...

A massive brush fire exacerbated by the city’s ongoing drought destroyed about four acres of Manhattan’s Inwood Hill Park, FDNY officials said Thursday. The raging blaze, which began about 3 p.m. Wednesday, tore its way through about four acres of parkland near W. 218 St. as upper Manhattan was covered in thick grey smoke for most of the day.