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.

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

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.