The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — Two large forest fires continued to burn Sunday night in St. Tammany Parish, the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry said.
The fires in Slidell and Mandeville were not threatening homes in either area, although high winds made it hard to predict what the fires would do, department spokesman Sam Irwin said.
The first fire started near the Slidell Airport and the Bellaire subdivision. Crews began fighting it Saturday around 11 a.m., Irwin said.
They stayed until around midnight, when it appeared to be under control. The firefighters left to focus on the Mandeville fire, near an old landfill.
However, the fire near Slidell jumped the fire-break and continued to spread, Irwin said.
Kirk Casanova, a department district manager, said the Slidell fire was actively burning Sunday, but firefighters had contained it. Casanova said it had burned about 1,200 acres of timberland.
High winds and dry conditions are fueling the fires, Irwin said.
Casanova said airplanes will fly over the areas on Monday to monitor them.
He said the Mandeville fire north of Fontainbleau State Park off U.S. 190 and west of Louisiana 1088 includes about 400 acres. That fire had been “relatively” contained Sunday, Casanova said.
“We have called out all the units we have in that area,” Irwin said.
The Slidell property is owned by Weyerhaeuser, the national lumber corporation, Irwin said.
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company