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.

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.

Nearly four dozen firefighters were deployed to battle a brush fire in the Inwood section of Manhattan on Wednesday.