By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch
The Times-Picayune
MANDEVILLE, La. — The lingering wildfire in the Mandeville area got a bit unruly Wednesday morning, jumping its containment lines and causing a ruckus as it burned more than five additional acres before state fire officials got it back in line.
Then, while the state observation plane and fire crews were busy fighting a 110-acre woods fire west of Folsom into Tangipahoa Parish, the Mandeville area fire once again moved east-southeast near an old cemetery east of Cane Bayou.
And so about 4:30 p.m., bulldozers and officials drove out again to the Mandeville site to create new fire-break areas.
The recent wildfire ordeal in St. Tammany Parish began Saturday morning when fires in the Slidell and Mandeville area charred 2,700 acres of woodlands. Both fires had been contained by Monday evening, with the Mandeville fire smoldering northeast of Fontainebleau State Park to Interstate 12, and the fire near Slidell mainly cooling west of Slidell’s municipal airport up to Louisiana 36, state officials said.
“We will try to get them in place for tonight and make sure (the fire) stays where it is supposed to stay, and then the plane will go up and check on it again tomorrow morning,” Kirk Casanova, district manager for the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry, said Wednesday. “I might have to burn out 100 acres to a road until it stops, but that will cause a whole lot of smoke, so I’m trying to prevent that.”
The heart of the Mandeville commotion occurred just east and northeast of the old cemetery, where the fire initially was ignited on Saturday morning, according to state officials.
The bulldozers worked to create additional buffer zones by knocking down trees and scraping down to the soil to remove the fuel — grass, leaves and other debris — that sustains the fires and helps them move outward.
Roy St. Pierre Jr., an enforcement agent with the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry, said Wednesday that his department had pinpointed the exact origins of both the Mandeville and Slidell area fires, which both were set Saturday about 10:45 a.m.
St. Pierre announced a $2,000 reward for anyone who could provide information leading to the identities of the suspected arsonists.
The fire in the Slidell area broke out near the Slidell Airport and the Belaire subdivision. St. Pierre and other agents were talking with residents of that subdivision Wednesday.
“We have heard that some children were in the area of the fire on the day it burned, and we are now looking for them,” Pierre said. “The kids may have started it, or they could be witnesses, possibly providing more information.”
Officials have pinpointed the exact origin of that fire as 300 to 400 yards north of the subdivision in the woods off the north side of Journey Road.
Gene Hano, who state officials said owns a portion of the charred Mandeville acreage, said Tuesday that he frequently sees teenagers riding bikes in and out of his property, and that he suspects them as possible culprits.
The reward is being offered by the Louisiana Forestry Association. Anyone with information should call the state department at 225.952.8019, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or the Louisiana Forestry Association at 318.443.2258, authorities said.
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company