Officials say Arkansas has seen more than 400 fires in March, burn bans still active

Officials with the Arkansas Forestry Division say there have been more than 400 fires in just March alone, resulting in around 12,000 acres burned.

By:Tylisa Hampton
KARK

Officials with the Arkansas Forestry Division say they’ve seen hundreds of fires this month alone.

Officials say this past week’s weather conditions created a perfect storm for fires, and despite things simmering down, precaution is still needed.

Arkansas Department of Agriculture state forester Kyle Cunningham said battling the recent fires have been challenging. Officials with the Arkansas Forestry Division say there have been over 400 fires in just March alone, resulting in around 12,000 acres burned.

“This past week, with low humidity, high winds, and dry fuels out here on the ground, we started seeing a perfect storm coming together,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said the division works in unison with local fire departments.

“What we use are bulldozers. We have about 110 and we also have planes that could make drops of water,” Cunningham said.

That water drop came in handy earlier this week on a fire in Calhoun County.

“That fire we estimated around 1730 acres this morning,” Cunningham said.

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