AMITE CITY, La. — When flames tore through a Tangipahoa Parish home Monday afternoon, fire crews suited up.
“It was terrible. We had four departments with 25 to 30 men, and it took us about two and a half three hours to wrap up things,” said District #1 Chief J.D. Stevens.
Stevens said the fire should have never happened.
“A fella was burning a trash pile. He went around the corner of the house for just a minute or two and come back and his house burned up,” said Stevens.
Stevens said too many people, for whatever reason, are not adhering to the statewide burn ban put in place last week.
“They either don’t listen, don’t care, or don’t know about it,” said Stevens. “Probably the majority of them don’t even know about it.”
At fire district one in Amite, calls started coming in at seven o’clock Tuesday morning.
“Everyone one of them was grass fires,” said Stevens. “We may have had one EMS, but it’s woods fires and grass fires. It’s so hot and dry that one little spark and it just goes crazy.”
Dry conditions and triple digit temperatures helped fuel a wildfire in neighboring Washinton Parish a few days ago. About 200 acres of land burned near Mt. Hermon. A 34-year-old man from Independence man was arrested, accused of starting the fire after leaving a campfire unattended.
“It took a while to where they were able to get it under control,” said Stevens.
Stevens worries something like that could happen in his parish.
“At any moment as dry as it is,” said Stevens.
Stevens also worries about having enough resources if there are too many calls for service while crews are busy putting out fires.
“Everybody is slacking manpower because of finances mostly,” said Stevens.
At that house fire Monday, two of his men overheated. One of them was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion. Stevens is pleading with folks to not burn anything right now.
“’The heat from the fire and the heat from the sun will get you before you know it,” said Stevens. “Before you realize something is happening you hit the ground.”
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