Burn bans ordered in 29 counties.

Twenty-nine Arkansas counties are now under burn bans as hot, dry conditions continue with only a slight chance of rain forecast for the next week.

All but six counties in the northeast corner of the state are also considered to be in moderate fire danger, according to the Arkansas Forestry Commission. Residents in those areas are asked to burn trash or debris in the early morning or late evening, to avoid windy conditions, and to keep water and firefighting tools nearby in case of fire.

Counties under burn bans are: Baxter, Boone, Carroll, Clark, Cleburne, Cleveland, Fulton, Garland, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jefferson, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Newton, Ouachita, Perry, Pike, Pope, Prairie, Saline, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren, White and Yell.

“It’s getting drier,” said Sheila Doughty, a spokesman for the Arkansas Forestry Commission. ‘There’s not much rain ahead.”

The National Weather Service in North Little Rock forecasts a 20 percent to 30 percent chance of showers across much of the state each day through Sunday. Temperatures will remain in the upper 80s and lower 90s.

Doughty said rangers in three of the Forestry Commission’s districts in southwest Arkansas requested “detection flights” Monday. Pilots fly over areas to search for any small fires that could grow into wildfires, she said.

Doughty said the flights are used now instead of the several Forestry Commission fire towers that rangers previously climbed to scan for fires.

“It’s starting to look real dry,” said Andy Braswell, the Miller County forester.

The county got some brief rainfall Monday, he said, and that helped keep the fire danger down.

“But, if we don’t get any more rain soon, we’ll be back to where we were the day before,” he said. “The grass is getting crunchier. The leaves are crunchier. You can tell everything’s drying up.”

Firefighters battled two blazes in Miller County on Monday, he said. A 1-acre fire

ROOFING - SIDING - GUTTERS was sparked when someone was using an acetylene torch to cut metal. A second fire burned about 20 acres after a man’s brush pile “got away from him,” Braswell said.

“If we can get even some sporadic rain, that will help a little,” Braswell said.