Hours after smoke from a big wildfire blocked Interstate 530, Pine Bluff firefighters were still on the job tackling other fires in the city.
Several crews were still out in the city, Pine Bluff Fire Chief Shauwn Howell said after 7 p.m. Wednesday. Five fires were still burning in Jefferson County as of 7:50 p.m., and Howell called the outbreak “a fluid situation” as winds of up to 40 mph hammered the city.
“We have crews still out in the fields,” Howell said, adding he was still at headquarters waiting to get a report on the fires. “Some firefighters are going from one location to another. The situation is still fluid.”
A grass fire was ignited at Hestand Stadium on Blake Street late in the afternoon, not long after a tree gave way to the strong winds and blocked North Birch Street at Townsend Park, knocking down a power line that started a small grass fire that Pine Bluff firefighters extinguished.
Arkansas State Police announced before 7:45 p.m. roadways in Jefferson, Jackson and Lawrence counties affected by wildfires had reopened. That meant all lanes of I-530 from exits 12 to 32 had reopened. The I-530 fire jumped the highway to an area near a church on Arkansas 104, which was also shut down until 7:45.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The fire was among 54 that affected Arkansas on Wednesday, according to State Police. Five fires in Jefferson County were ongoing as of 7:50 p.m., including the one at I-530 and Arkansas 104, which Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management director Karen Blevins said would still burn “for some time.”
Other ongoing fires were at 420 N. Blake St., behind a motel next to Hestand Stadium; 411 W. 73rd Ave.; Grider Field on U.S. 65; and 2307 U.S. 425, according to Blevins. Fires on Ryburn Road, Iris Street and North Birch Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas 54 southwest of Pine Bluff and Dollarway Road in White Hall were contained earlier in the day.
Watson Chapel Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steven Tidwell said his firefighters were dispatched to the fire on Arkansas 54 about the same time others across the county responded to the I-530 fire.
“If that was going to happen at the worst time of the day, that was it,” Tidwell said. “With the weather conditions these past few days, particularly today, you can have a huge outbreak.”
The cause of the fires in Jefferson County had not been determined, according to authorities, but the winds from the west made for poor conditions that led to a burn ban issued by Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson earlier in the day.
“If you have a vehicle on your lawn and you start it up on a pile of leaves, the catalytic converter could give off the right heat and put out a little spark, and you could easily have a 100-acre fire,” Tidwell said. The Arkansas 54 fire, however, burned no more than 10 acres, he said.
Blevins encouraged citizens to follow the burn ban and use common sense when burning on days when the burn ban is not in place.
“If you’re going to burn, don’t do it when the winds are high,” she said.