Blazes keep firefighters busy

Four infernos closely timed strain resources, chief declares

PINE BLUFF — The heat was on for the Pine Bluff Fire Department on Tuesday and into Wednesday as firefighters battled three blazes in one day, two of which were reported one minute apart, and another that broke out twice in the same place.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday fire crews were called to a blaze at 1620 S. Nebraska St. in the old Big Banjo Pizza building. When firefighters arrived, the building had flames emerging through the middle of the roof from the second floor, according to an incident report from the Fire Department. One firefighter was overcome by heat exhaustion and was taken to Jefferson Regional Medical Center where he was treated and released.

About the same time, other firefighters were dispatched to a blaze a mileand-a-half west of there. Crews arrived to find smoke and flames emerging from the back of an empty house at 1517 S. Elm St.

Fire Chief Shauwn Howell said battling two fires at the same time is unusual for his department and strains its resources. Normally 2530 people are working per shift.

“It stretches our resources, definitely,” Howell said. “Ideally we have three to four engine companies at one fire so if you send three to one situation and three to the other, you’ve got half your department at one fire and half at the other. That’s stretching our resources to the limit of what we can do.”

Crews remained on both fire scenes until about 8 p.m.

Howell said crews from Entergy Arkansas were at both scenes within minutes to cut the power at the sites and the Pine Bluff Police Department sent patrol cars to both scenes to keep traffic cleared.

Later that day, at 11:34 p.m., fire crews were called to a warehouse at 2901 Planters Drive to find the Bale Press building on fire. Crews battled the blaze for nine hours, and two firefighters were transported from that scene to the hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion, Howell said. Both firefighters were treated and later released from the Jefferson Regional Medical Center.

About four hours after extinguishing the blaze, fire crews were called back to the warehouse because the fire reignited, which Howell said was because cotton seed stored in the building was so densely packed that one or more hot spots had smoldered and flared up again.

“You just soak those things, and as hot and dry as it is now, they sit there and dry out, and the wind gets them and they’ll stoke back up,” he said. “That’s what happened, they just stoked back up. It was the same area and the same fire, and enough time went by that it rekindled.”

All of the fires are under investigation, but Howell said nothing indicates that the blazes are linked.

“The only thing connecting them was the timing,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that they all happened at the same time, but that happens every once in a blue moon, and we just have to deal with it when it does. We hate it when it happens, but we really appreciate the utility crews and police officers who came out. It really was a team effort to keep everyone safe.”