LAFOURCHE PARISH, La. — Highway 90 between Raceland and Bayou Blue reopened Thursday morning after closing several hours earlier due to smoke from a nearby marsh fire. Many schools in Lafourche Parish were forced to close for the day because of the conditions.
Officials say a repeat of Thursday morning’s smoke is unlikely, but drivers should still use caution and check with their child’s school Friday in case closures are announced again.
State police closed that same stretch of highway Tuesday morning because of the thick smoke. After that, firefighters were able to push the fire back from the road, but “the wind changed direction and it came back towards the highway,” said Gregg Falgout, Assistant Chief of Lafourche Parish Fire Protection District 1. The road closure was announced early Thursday morning and brought commuters to a standstill in both Raceland and Bayou Blue during morning rush hour.
Falgout estimates the fire has burned at least a thousand acres so far. The cause is still unknown, though this has been a record season for wildfires across Louisiana because of severe drought.
“I’m a lifelong resident of this community and this is the first time in my 47 years I’ve ever seen it happen,” said Jardon Martin, Superintendent of Lafourche Parish Schools.
He told WWL Louisiana the district essentially had no choice but to close seven schools Thursday morning. Many schools, including Central Lafourche High School, enroll students on both sides of the stretch of Highway 90 that closed.
“The road closures made it virtually impossible to get from the residents that are served by the schools to the actual schools,” said Martin.
He says the district has not made a decision on whether to close any schools Friday morning. He believes it is unlikely, since the fire seems to be generating much less smoke as of Thursday evening than it did earlier. If closures are announced, Martin says it will happen “much earlier than we unfortunately had to do it this morning.”
Falgout echoed that optimism. “Hopefully it’s calmed down enough [by Friday] it won’t cause any more problems,” he said. He added that even though “most of the fire is unreachable” firefighters are focusing on extinguishing hot spots closest to the highway.
There is still reason to be cautious, though. The forecast for Friday morning shows wind could blow the smoke that is still being created by the fire onto the road again. Even if no closures are announced, drivers are still urged to prepare for lower-than-usual visibility.
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