Wildfire force evacuation of La. town experiencing severe drought

A town in southwestern Louisiana experiencing severe drought is under a mandatory evacuation order due to a wildfire.

The command for Merryville was issued Thursday by the Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office with a warning that the fire could reach the town limits within hours.

“Get out now!” the sheriff’s office wrote on social media.

The town of about 1,000 is located near the state’s border with Texas, about 120 miles east of Houston. The fire burned more than 12,000 acres in Beauregard Parish. It originated near a hunting club on Tiger Island.

At least one home in the area has been destroyed by the fire, according to the National Weather Service.

According to the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, there were almost 350 wildfires burning in the state this week.

“This time, this year obviously we’re dealing with a different type of weather situation that requires everybody to be aware of the burn ban and to do their part to reduce the likelihood that we would have anything that could potentially start a fire,” the office’s director, Casey Tingle, said in a news conference Wednesday.

“When it comes to this time of year, typically, we’re talking about hurricanes, tropical storms, rain, flooding that sort of thing,” Tingle added. “Our public is very attuned to those type of messages and always does a great job of helping us as a state respond and recover from those events when they happen.”

The forecast calls for the dry, hot weather to continue, increasing the risk for more wildfires.

“Our state has never been this hot and dry and we have never had this many fires,” Gov. John Bel Elwards wrote on social media Thursday. “We need you and your neighbors to help keep our communities and first responders safe. Adhere to the statewide burn ban. Don’t burn anything.”

Several states and regions of the U.S. are currently experiencing wildfires, including Texas, California, Washington, Arizona and Montana.