A wildfire burning in Union County, Arkansas, has grown to an estimated 2,000 acres, with officials warning the actual footprint may be larger, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture
said on Friday. The blaze, known as the Pine Tree Road Fire, ignited Thursday night and has been actively fought by ground and air crews since.
As of 4:35 p.m. Friday, firefighters had contained 45 percent of the fire's perimeter, the department reported. Despite that progress, authorities ordered a limited number of additional homes evacuated Friday afternoon "out of an abundance of caution.”
Roughly 150 residents had already been moved to shelters in Lawson and El Dorado earlier, the department said in its Friday morning update. Separately, satellite tracking service
currentwildfires.com listed the blaze at 2,114 acres and reported 12 satellite heat detections logged over the preceding 48 hours, attributing the fire's cause to natural origins on private land.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders authorized the deployment of two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters equipped with Bambi buckets to help with extinguishing the fire. The Arkansas National Guard
confirmed in a social media post the helicopter, carrying six pilots and six crew chiefs from the 77th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade, left Camp Robinson at around 12:30 p.m. Friday.
Earlier Friday, ten bulldozers were cutting containment lines while replacement crews from other parts of the state were being readied, and a detection flight over southeast Arkansas was planned along with the start of air tankers to assist in the response. Entergy also cut power to lines in the fire area to allow crews to work safely toward improving containment.
The Department of Agriculture said its teams have been coordinating closely with volunteer fire departments, the Union County Sheriff's Office, and the Union County Office of Emergency Management, and it thanked first responders for their work throughout the day.
Crews are expected to remain in the area through the weekend, the department said. Officials also renewed calls for the public to stay out of the fire zone and to avoid flying drones near the area, warning that unauthorized drone flights "halt air operations, delay emergency response, distract ground crews, and create serious airspace hazards.”
The Arkansas fire follows a smaller yet similarly fast-moving vegetation fire
that burned 93 acres in San Diego County's Dehesa community, and reached 50 percent containment by Thursday morning after igniting Wednesday afternoon near Dehesa Road and Red Gum Road, according to CAL FIRE updates. That blaze prompted both evacuation orders and warnings before authorities lifted the warning Wednesday evening, though mandatory orders remained in place for some zones.
