LAFITTE, La. — A newly discovered underground marsh fire in Jean Lafitte has firefighters using every available tool they have to stop it from spreading to nearby homes.
The fire was discovered Tuesday when it blanketed areas of Jean Lafitte and Belle Chase in lower Jefferson Parish in thick smoke. The smoke was so bad Tuesday that it caused low visibility for drivers and forced some schools to let kids out early because of poor air quality.
Lafitte Barataria Fire Chief Linton Duet says the fire so far has consumed about 100 acres as it spreads through the root system of a wooded marsh.
“So, what's happening here right now is on the brush and the undercarriage is burning underneath all this, and makes it really tough especially when the root system, but there's a lot of work left,” Duet tells WWL-TV’s Paul Murphy.
“Hopefully, we have enough assistance from the helicopters dropped in the dumps, and we got a lot of crews out here from different neighboring departments that are helping us and making it happen in the parish.”
Duet said they are also using heavy bulldozers to help fight the fire and stop it from spreading to the other side of a levee.
“We don't want it to jump this little levee system or now it's in the middle of this pile of woods. We don't want it to get closer to the homes as possible that's why you see the focus of this helicopter there, you know, dumping this water up right here to make sure it doesn't get closer to the homes,” he said.
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