Firefighters battled fires in at least three western Arkansas counties Wednesday, two of them fanned by high winds.
A fire in Franklin County north of Charleston destroyed a double-wide mobile home that was under renovation, according to Sherman Hiatt, the Charleston mayor and assistant fire chief. Hiatt said no one was home at the time.
The fire started about 1:45 p.m. when chicken litter in a shed at a poultry farm northwest of Charleston heated to the point of combustion, Hiatt said.
The wildfire burned the shed and a pile of hay next to it and was swept on by high winds that blew it northeast across Arkansas 217 to a location north of the Vesta community 6 miles north of Charleston, burning about 120 acres, Hiatt said.
The forecast Wednesday from the National Weather Service in Tulsa said winds would blow from the south and southwest with gusts of around 40 miles per hour.
Fire departments from Franklin and Sebastian counties fought the fire throughout the afternoon. At one point, firefighters had to scramble up rocky, heavily wooded terrain to fight the fire by hand as it burned up the side of Mill Creek Mountain, Hiatt said.
The Arkansas Forestry Commission brought in four bulldozers that plowed a line around the fire to isolate it while firefighters cut down several trees to remove fuel and put out hot spots, Hiatt said. He said a crew would remain on-site through the night to monitor the fire.
In Sebastian County, strong winds rekindled a fire that had been set Monday as a controlled burn, Sebastian County Emergency Management Director Jeff Turner said.
The fire, reported about 1 p.m. Wednesday, had burned about 30 acres as of 5 p.m., Turner said. It was located south of Hartford in an isolated area near Poteau Mountain at the Scott and Sebastian county lines.
Turner said no structures were in the path of the fire.
Fire departments from Hartford, Midland, Mansfield, Sugar Loaf, Huntington and the Arkansas Forestry Commission responded to the fire, he said.
Firefighters from multiple departments also were working on a grass fire in the Cincinnati area in western Washington County on Wednesday. Attempts to reach officials for additional information were unsuccessful.
The Forestry Commission website showed there was a moderate wildfire danger in 22 counties, from Northwest Arkansas east across the northern portion of the state to Randolph and Lawrence counties.
No Arkansas county was under a burn ban Wednesday.
State Desk on 01/12/2017