Courtesy of the Beauregard Parish Sheriff's Office
Despite some rain over Labor Day weekend, the Tiger Island wildfire, the state’s largest in history, is still active. We spoke with Beauregard Parish Sheriff Mark Herford who says progress continues but they’re not out of the woods yet.
“It’s about 57 percent contained. They’ve been in the process of applying fire breaks around the entire fire. They still have a few hot spots on the northeast corner but they feel like they got it well contained.”
The fire has burned over 31 thousand acres. Herford says crews are working to reinforce dozer lines around the town of Merryville to withstand any possible advancing fire. He says there are still a few active spots but the fire remains within the current footprint.
“They do an infrared flight every night and they look to see where the hottest spots of the fire are and then they try to target those areas. It’s kind of in the northeast corner of this fire.”
The Southern Area Red Incident Team continues to mop up operations along LA 110 between Singer and Merryville. Herford says more than 330 people are working to assist with the Tiger Island fire. He says this is an unprecedented situation and the statewide burn ban is still active.
“At one point this fire was six miles wide. So it was a monster. We’ve got to be smart about how we’re doing things. If you smoke in your vehicle, get something and put some water in it. This is just a dangerous situation.”
Authorities believe the Tiger Island fire is fire is arson-related. The Louisiana Forestry Association is offering up to two thousand dollars to anyone with information leading to an arrest and conviction. If you have information, call LDAF, Beauregard Parish Sheriff, or local law enforcement.
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