Burn ban list grows

Sebastian, Crawford counties added

Crawford and Sebastian counties are the latest in the state to issue burn bans because of persistent dry weather.

As of Thursday, 46 of the state’s 75 counties have banned outdoor burning, according to the Arkansas Forestry Commission website.

All but nine counties in the southeast corner of the state are rated high for wildfire danger on the commission’s website.

Announcements from county judges’ offices in Van Buren and Fort Smith said residents are barred from burning trash, debris, brush and all other material during the period when conditions are extremely dry.

“Lawns, fields and wooded areas are exceptionally dry and the flash point for outdoor fires is unusually low,” Sebastian County Judge David Hudson wrote in a news release Thursday. “Moderate to high winds are also expected over the next few days, which will continue to dry out vegetation as well as spread fire more quickly.”

Crawford County Judge Dennis Gilstrap wrote in a news release factors such as self-producing wind from open fires in dry weather causes difficulties in containing and controlling outdoor fires and endangers those attempting to control and extinguish the fires.

The hazardous weather outlook from the National Weather Service office in Little Rock warned no precipitation is forecast for several days. Dry air will remain across the area. The moderate to high wildfire danger will persist and could worsen over time.

“Any days where winds become gusty during the day will raise fire weather concerns due to the very dry conditions and cured vegetation,” the weather service in Tulsa said in its hazardous weather outlook.

There was one fire reported in Arkansas on Thursday, in Marion County, commission communications director Adriane Barnes said. The fire had just been reported mid-afternoon Thursday, she said, so the size was unknown as crews were still heading to the site.

Two fires burned two acres on Wednesday, she

said, indicating conditions the past few days weren’t conductive to fire because of recent rain in a large part of the state earlier this week. She noted that last week, 60 counties were under burn bans.

The fire danger will rise when the humidity drops, the sun shines and the drought condition in the state continues, Barnes said.

Barnes said there have been 1,431 wild fires this year that burned 26,100 acres. The most recent year with a high number of wild fires, she said, was 2012 with 2,148 fires that burned 34,434 acres.

The weather service in Little Rock reported that 72 percent of the state was either in severe or extreme drought. Precipitation tables show that from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, Little Rock received 2.24 inches, only 17 percent of its normal 13.37-inch rainfall.

Also for that three-month period, Fort Smith got 3.57 inches or 28 percent of its normal rainfall, Fayetteville received 6.47 inches or 48 percent of its normal rainfall, Jonesboro received 2.43 inches or 20 percent of its normal rainfall, and El Dorado got 3.73 inches or 28 percent of its normal rainfall.