Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
Feds’ move in crisis bewilders local officials
By RICHARD BOYD
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
A federally financed program that has brought 835 firefighters from across the nation to help fight seven months of woods fires in St. Tammany, Washington and Tangipahoa parishes will come to an end Saturday.
And that has local fire officials concerned and looking to the heavens for a remedy.
“We may have to pray for rain now,” said David Campbell, the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s district forestry manager for the three parishes. “We still have acres and acres in the three parishes filled with downed and dead timber and brush that is tinder-dry.”
There now are 60 firefighters from 22 other states based in Hammond, but when they leave, Campbell will have only 18 state forestry firefighters and 11 bulldozers for the three parishes, he said.
“I hate to lose them. They have been invaluable to us during these dangerous times following the storm,” he said.
Firefighters have been pouring in to help battle the north shore fires since Hurricane Katrina did major damage to timberland and a severe shortage of rain created prime conditions for forest fires.
Since the hurricane, Louisiana and visiting forestry firefighters, along with local firefighters, have battled 685 woods fires that have scorched more than 6,000 acres in the three parishes. St. Tammany Parish alone has had 250 forest fires, including a blaze Tuesday that burned about 65 acres near Pearl River.
St. Tammany officials Tuesday reacted with alarm to the news that the firefighting assistance is coming to an end.
“This is a very serious situation,” said John O’Neil, parish director of Fire Services. He asked residents to comply with the parish ban on open burning.
“Do not burn trash or debris. Do not throw cigarette butts from cars.”
Dexter Accardo, the parish director of emergency preparedness, said he asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to continue the program and full financing until the parish registers significant rain, but he said that was denied.
“We have had a 65 percent increase in fire calls in the parish since Katrina, many of them woods fires, and there is a definite strain on firefighting resources . . . ,” O’Neil said.
St. Tammany firefighters will sorely miss the manpower and equipment provided by the other states, Campell said.
“One of the really valuable tools we will lose with the program shutting down are the helicopters provided by some of these Western state firefighters . . . ,” he said. “We don’t have a state helicopter, but that has been a very valuable tool for us.”
Fighting wildfires from the air is common in most Western states. The helicopters on loan to the north shore have been able to dump up to 500 gallons of water at a time.
Several recent woods fires in St. Tammany have been caused by debris burning that got out of control. In addition, since Katrina two people have been arrested on charges of arson, one allegedly responsible for about 70 fires in the Folsom area, another allegedly responsible for several in the Hickory area.