A large plume of smoke from the Tiger Island fire rises from forestland near Merryville in Beauregard Parish on Aug. 23, 2023. (Jenn Finley/La. Dept. of Agriculture and Forestry)
Lightning strikes Wednesday sparked new fires in a section of Beauregard Parish where a major conflagration has destroyed more than 30,000 acres of forested property, but Sheriff Mark Herford said the larger Tiger Island fire was at “71% containment” as of Thursday morning.
Monitoring for hotspots continues but there has been no growth in the footprint of the Tiger Island fire, Herford said in a Facebook post. Five aircraft are assisting ground crews in patrols, he added.
Other fires in Beauregard Parish have been contained and are also being monitored, according to the sheriff.
Two voluntary evacuation orders remain in place in the parish, for the Junction community and areas south to the Merryville town limits and east to Williams and Vigor Miers roads. At its peak, the fire led to mandatory evacuation orders and left Merryville without electricity for days.
State officials and detectives with the sheriff’s office are investigating the Tiger Island fire as an arson incident. Anyone with information is asked to call the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s 24-hour hotline at 1-855-452-5323 or the Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office at 337-462-8918.
Louisiana remains under a burn ban that has been in place nearly a month.
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