Wildfires force southwestern Louisiana town to evacuate amid extreme drought
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By Sara Smart, CNN
(CNN) — A southwestern Louisiana town is under mandatory evacuation Thursday due to wildfires in the area as the state deals with extreme heat and a statewide burn ban.
The evacuation order for Merryville was issued by the Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office Thursday evening, saying the fire could reach the town limits within hours, according to Louisiana State Police.
Merryville has a population of about 1,200 people, sheriff’s office spokesperson Shannon Burgess told CNN. The town is located just east of the state border with Texas, about 120 miles northeast of Houston.
For residents who need transportation out, buses are available at the Merryville town hall, the sheriff’s office said.
“We had buses immediately headed that way,” Burgess said.
A shelter is open at First Methodist Church in DeRidder, Louisiana, northeast of Merryville. If the winds shift and a large number of people arrive, they may move to a bigger shelter, Burgess said.
During a time of year when Louisiana is typically preparing for hurricanes and tropical storms, the state is instead dealing with a growing wildfire threat.
Earlier this week there were almost 350 wildfires burning in the state, according to Mike Steele, communications director at the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Every parish in the state is under a red flag warning, according to the National Weather Service.
State emergency operations centers were activated Wednesday morning to help battle the blazes.
“This time, this year obviously we’re dealing with a different type of weather situation that requires everybody to be aware of the burn ban and to do their part to reduce the likelihood that we would have anything that could potentially start a fire,” the office’s director, Casey Tingle, said in a news conference Wednesday.
Tingle says they’re stretching their resources thin as Louisiana has been under a burn ban since August 7.
“When it comes to this time of year, typically, we’re talking about hurricanes, tropical storms, rain, flooding that sort of thing,” Tingle said, “Our public is very attuned to those type of messages and always does a great job of helping us as a state respond and recover from those events when they happen.”
“We desperately need everyone’s help in adhering to this (burn ban) order,” he said.
More than 10,000 acres have burned in Beauregard Parish from wildfires as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Tingle.
And there’s no relief in sight: The upcoming forecast for the area and the state is expected to be dry and hot, Tingle added.
State Fire Marshal Deputy Chief Felicia Cooper also said: “This situation is dangerous for every single one of us.”
The area of Beauregard Parish experiencing the wildfires is in severe to extreme drought. Around 77% of the state is experiencing some level of drought, which is up from 7% of the state just three months ago, according to CNN Weather.
Lake Charles, around 40 miles southeast of Merryville, has seen temperatures over 100 degrees every day since August 18 and temperatures over 95 degrees since June 29.
“Our state has never been this hot and dry and we have never had this many fires,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Elwards posted on social media Thursday. “We need you and your neighbors to help keep our communities and first responders safe. Adhere to the statewide burn ban. Don’t burn anything.”
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CNN Meteorologists Taylor Ward and Robert Shackelford contributed to this report.
