The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday that a brush fire that burned for more than 24 hours on a small island in Beaver Lake had apparently extinguished itself, with no evident injuries to any animals or people.
Sean Harper, Beaver Lake operations project manager for the Corps of Engineers, said a blaze on the island was first reported to the North East Benton County Fire Department just after midnight Wednesday. Harper said the fire burned about 90 percent of underbrush and other vegetation on the island. Harper said it was not clear how the blaze started.
Richard Funk, a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician with the North East Benton County Fire Department, said he and several other volunteers, along with two forest rangers, responded to the blaze early Thursday in one of the department’s two boats.
However, because there were no houses nor evidence of people on the island, they decided to let the fire burn itself out. The island is more than 100 yards from the nearest shore.
Harper said that in accordance with Corps of Engineers regulations, visitors are allowed to be on any of the islands in the lake but may build fires only within designated campfire rings.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13 on 04/12/2014