Grant County wildfire quelled in 13-hour fight

High winds fanned flames on 1,503 acres; no one hurt

A wildfire in Grant County burned 1,503 acres on Sunday, said Joe Fox, Arkansas’ state forester. It was brought under control early Monday.

About 25 homes were evacuated, but the fire caused no injuries or structural damage, said Randall Berry, the county’s emergency management coordinator.

Berry said the fire was reported about noon Sunday and was contained at about 1:15 a.m. Monday. He said the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

“It was one of the biggest fires we’ve had in our county that I can remember,” said Sheridan Fire Chief Ben Hammond, who has been with the volunteer fire department since 2008.

Hammond said strong winds whipped the fire into treetops, allowing the flames to leap across bulldozed fire breaks.

“There were occasions where you could drastically see the spread of the fire because of the wind,” he said. “I saw fire that was 30 feet high in trees. When it gets to the top of trees like that, not only does it spread further, but if fire is on a 30-foot tree top, it also doesn’t care about that fire break on the ground. It can easily spread beyond that fire break.”

Justin Condry, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock, said the wind was blowing steadily at 20-25 mph on Sunday with gusts of 30-35 mph.

Hammond said about 20 fire departments and other agencies assisted with the fire, with more than 100 responders on the scene at some point.

“On a fire like this, and I don’t care what city you’re in, it takes all of those resources,” he said. “We’ll look back on this incident and we’ll talk about the positives we had and the learning experience we had as it relates to bringing so many departments and apparatus and personnel together. It was a large fire, but it could have been much, much worse.”

Hammond said the forestry division of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture was the “primary source of fire suppression.”

Fox said the Department of Agriculture provided a dozen personnel, seven plow units, two single-engine air tankers dropping water and one air attack aircraft directing the tankers on drop locations and the eyes in the sky for ground crew.

Berry said the area that

burned was primarily forest land east of Grant County Road 51 and south of County Road 57.

Hammond said the first concern was to evacuate houses and protect structures on those county roads and to create “plow lines” to the east to contain the fire.

“Our first priority on a scene like that obviously is life preservation,” he said.

The second priority is property preservation, followed by stabilization so people can go home, Hammond added.

While fighting the fire, the Sheridan Fire Department also dealt with two separate grass fires, a substantial car accident with injuries and a couple of lesser priority calls, said Hammond. The situation was similar for other agencies fighting the fire, he said.

Berry said rain moving into the area on Monday would help douse any smoldering remains of the fire.

Hammond said firefighters who helped with Sunday’s fire now have to get ready to deal with severe thunderstorms — and possibly tornadoes — in the forecast through Wednesday.

“We’ve got to clean our gear up,” he said. “We’ve got to sharpen our chainsaws and put our boots back on.”

Fox said there were no other active fires in the state on Monday.