Windy conditions have renewed a wildfire that escaped a containment line and prompted a voluntary evacuation for a small number of houses in a community near the New York-New Jersey border.

Firefighters in New York say a voluntary evacuation has helped them protect about 165 homes from a wildfire as officials in much of the Northeast cope with hundreds of brush fires in tinder-dry and windy conditions.

The National Weather Service issued a special statement Sunday warning about the elevated risk of wildfires spreading in some New Jersey counties.