Two dead as ‘unprecedented’ 450 wildfires scorch Louisiana

At least two people have died in “unprecedented” wildfires that have ravaged Louisiana in recent weeks.

An elderly woman was pronounced dead Sunday after a brush fire spread to a shed in St. Tammany Parish, just north of New Orleans, and earlier this month, a man died in Franklinton when his home and surrounding property caught fire.

The blazes were just two of more than 450 wildfires that have scorched thousands of acres in southwest Louisiana in recent weeks during record-breaking temperatures and severe drought conditions.

“Wildfires this many and of this intensity are unprecedented,” Mike Strain, the commissioner of the Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Department, told the Washington Post.

On average, the state deals with a total of 771 wildfires each year, or about two a day, data from the department shows.

But over the past few weeks, the state has been averaging 21 wildfires each day, and a state of emergency has been declared in 17 different parishes.

“With this kind of heat, the low humidity and the lack of rainfall, this is probably the driest conditions, the most drought-prone conditions we’ve had in a generation,” Strain said.

Temperatures over the weekend broke all-time records in multiple communities across Louisiana, with the New Orleans International Airport recording 105 degrees on Sunday — the highest temp ever recorded there.

The Agriculture and Forestry Department recorded 14 different wildfires breaking out in less than 10 minutes Sunday to the north and west of New Orleans, as the Tiger Island fire in Beauregard Parish became the largest in state history.

It grew from 15,000 acres to more than 33,000 acres between Friday and Saturday and forced mandatory evacuations, state officials said.

The massive blaze is still just 50 percent contained, as the Louisiana National Guard and local firefighters work to extinguish the fires. Crews have also been brought in from Texas, Florida and Oklahoma.

In total, the area that has been burned in Beauregard Parish, from both the Tiger Island fire and the Longville fire, has surpassed 50,000 acres.

“The fields are just so dry, so the grass is really dry, and the bushes are really dry,” said Danielle Manning, the lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in New Orleans. “Everything ignites a lot easier when we’re in this kind of drought.”

According to the US Drought Monitor, nearly 77 percent of Louisiana is experiencing severe drought conditions — affecting about 4.2 million residents.

At the same time, wildfires that scorched parts of Rapides Parish on Thursday were intentionally set, officials said.

The situation is now only expected to worsen, as predicted scattered storms with cloud-to-ground lightning and strong winds could fuel the flames and even change the direction of the fire spread, experts said.

Winds from Hurricane Idalia could also cause further fire spread midweek, as the relative humidity drops. 

Little or no rainfall is expected in Louisiana from that storm. 

“We are in this fight for the long haul,” Strain said. “We expect this fight to continue until we get significant rainfall.”