Copyright 2006 Capital City Press
All Rights Reserved
By BOB ANDERSON
The Advocate (Louisiana)
Fire destroys 125 acres of St. Tammany forest
A forest fire in St. Tammany Parish burned 125 acres of timber Sunday night and Monday morning, forestry officials said.
The little rain that some areas received this weekend didn’t do much to alter the dry conditions that have made forest fires an ongoing problem this spring, State Forester Paul Frey said Monday afternoon.
“Our people have been pushed to the limit in these conditions,” Frey said.
The teams that fight forest fires for the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry have been overworked and stretched too thin since out-of-state firefighters went home earlier this month, Frey said.
Faced with continuing forest fires and manpower shortages, the state is trying to hire more people to fight the blazes, the state forester said.
One of the major jobs of the Office of Forestry’s firefighters is to move heavy equipment into the area of a fire and cut fire lines around the blaze to limit its ability to spread.
Frey said his office is trying to hire additional firefighters, including 12 more people in the Hammond District, which covers Tangipahoa, St. Tammany and Washington parishes.
That district, which has been a hotspot this spring, has 13 firefighters, Frey said.
Until early April, those firefighters were augmented by 80 out-of-state firefighters, who were sent to help battle wildfires after Hurricane Katrina downed timber in the Florida Parishes.
St. Tammany Parish had three fires this weekend that covered almost 200 acres, said Epney Brasher of the Hammond District.
Frey said the department is also trying to hire additional personnel to help fight fires in Livingston and St. Helena parishes, which have also had numerous fires in recent weeks.
In addition to salary and a good benefits package, the firefighters get $300-a-month in hazardous duty pay, he said.
Federal hurricane supplemental funds though the U.S. Forest Service would help to pay for those personnel, Frey said.
Though downed timber and dry conditions continue to create dangerous conditions, the number of fires has decreased somewhat as the public has become aware of the problem and cut back on open burning, Frey said.
Forestry officials say many of the fires they have fought in recent weeks have been the result of trash fires that got out of hand, but some also appear to have been arson.
The cause of the Sunday night fire in St. Tammany near Tallsheek is under investigation, Brasher said.