Monday Update on Area Wildfires

Wildfires are burning throughout the state of Louisiana and the last few days, we have been dealing with them around Southwest Louisiana. We have spoken with authorities with both the Westlake and Beauregard Parish Fires.

BEAUREGARD PARISH FIRE: (Tiger Island Fire)

THIS IS THE LATEST UPDATE FROM THE BEAUREGARD PARISH SHERIFF'S OFFICE:

As of this morning, we still have 2 mandatory evacuation orders in place from Junction along 190 to the east of the covered arena extending to the north and south sides of Highway 190. We will be reviewing these orders and the situation of the fires to determine if they will remain mandatory.

The voluntary evacuation order for the Hauser Rd/Ragle area north of Longville remains in place as of this morning as well. Overnight was reported as one of the more quiet nights dealing with fire because of the rain and reported no jumps or flare-ups. They reported that we will have air assets back starting this morning, 4 helicopters, 2 fixed-winged, making drops as needed. Their focus has turned to fires inside the parish but outside of the Tiger Island portion due to the new federal strike team now assigned to the Tiger Island mission. They have their assets located around the parish prepared to combat existing fires along with anything that may pop up. They are reporting that the fires near Bancroft and north of Longville are contained at this time and will continue monitoring.

They have estimated that the Longvile area fire has consumed approximately 19,200 acres so far bringing the total in Beauregard Parish including the Tiger Island fire to over 50,000 acres burned. They have confirmed 6 identified homes that have been destroyed by fire with approximately 22 other structures left to confirm whether they are homes or not and have begun that process this morning.

Centerpoint Entergy has begun their process of going house to house this morning in Merryville inspecting so gas can be turned back on inside the town. We have received 25 extra LEOs from the LSA to help assist in law enforcement and security duties as our deputies at BPSO have been tasked to help in the effort of the mission of containing the fires.

Roadways remain open as of this morning. Highways 27, 190, 389, and 110 are open for travel. We remind you again that the BURN BAN is still in effect and even after the rain we got overnight there still is a ZERO tolerance with violations of this order. Red Team still has assessed the drought levels as high with the ground dryness as very high. Please stay safe and please obey the burn ban.

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WESTLAKE FIRE:

We just spoke with Fire Chief Duff, and he assured us that there were no issues last night as crews worked through the night to make sure nothing escalated. The fire laid down and smoldered as they expected it to do.

There is still a lot of black burning, so you can expect smoke throughout today and likely throughout the rest of the week. The fire is being monitored from all sides and it is UNDER CONTROL.

For those concerned with the Sasol brush fire, it is completely out. They do not expect any issues or flare-ups out of that one.

No homes are in danger, no evacuations are in place, and no roads are closed outside of J Clophus.

Westlake Fire Chief Jonathan Duff wanted to be sure and tell the community THANK YOU for the outpouring of support you have shown in bringing food/supplies. Those supplies will be shared throughout all agencies working the fire. As of now, they are good on supplies.