MERRYVILLE, La. – Authorities issued a mandatory evacuation for the entire town of Merryville, Louisiana, on Thursday in advance of an approaching wildfire expected to reach the town limits by the evening.
Buses were waiting at the town hall for anyone without transportation in the town with a population of about 1,000.
The Tiger Island Fire has consumed more than 16,000 acres, according to the Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office. The fire burning near the Texas state line was 85% contained as of Thursday morning, but winds fanned the flames. By 5 p.m., authorities feared the fire would overtake the town within the next two hours.
“It’s burning very intensely,” said Mike Strain, Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry. “It’s moving pretty fast, and you can feel the air picking up. That’s from the heat of the fire sucking air into the fire.”
Local fire departments, volunteers and the National Guard battled the fire, which started Tuesday morning, from the air and ground. By Wednesday, the first mandatory evacuations went out for parts of Singer, Louisiana. At that point, Merryville was still under voluntary evacuation.
High temperatures, drought and variable winds prompted the NWS to issue a Fire Weather Warning through Friday night for critical to extreme fire weather conditions.
“This is rapidly becoming the biggest fire danger threat this area has had since the summer of 2000,” the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles office warned. “Fires can spread rapidly in these conditions.”
Merryville hit a high of 109 on Thursday. With humidity, the temperature felt like 118, according to the NWS.
“It’s hot. That fire is hot. It’s 109 degrees out here, and you can feel the heat and the intensity of the fire this far away,” said Strain from the command post.
Air tankers and helicopters are dropping water and fire retardant on the blaze. Strain said by knocking the fire down out of the tops of the trees where flames are very difficult to contain.
“It’ll jump a road, and also, what happens when it’s burning hot and high in the trees, it’ll throw a debris field up into the air,” Strain said on social media. “From this fire, they’ve already found embers that are still lit 20 miles away.”
State officials have been pleading with the public across all media to observe burn bans.
“Everybody out here, every man and woman out here on this fire putting their life on the line, you know, to save the community and their family and the property here,” added Strain.
Neighbors did rally and attempt to help by using their personal water hoses to fight fires, according to the sheriff. That dropped water pressure and volume for the actual firefighters.
Heat and drought created an unusually high wildfire risk for a state more accustomed to tropical storms this time of year, according to the Times-Picayune. Almost 360 wildfires have broken out so far this August.