A fire in Blackwell burns up to 80 acres of land

Blackwell, Arkansas – Last Sunday, lightning struck a tree in Blackwell off of I-40, causing a fire that has burned for almost a week.

According to the landowner, Robert Stobaugh, “we’ve had very sparse rain since June 10th here and I know we’ve got about 8 tenths the night that this fire was ignited but you see that didn’t slow this thing down at all”.

The flames can be seen by those driving down the road, and even from the top of Petit Jean Mountain. “We are under a burn ban and we are right on I-40, we got plenty of calls,” said Stobaugh.

40 of the 200 acres were burned within the first couple of days of the fire.

“See the sticks (tree trunks), and just how many there are. Well there were probably 5 or 6 maybe 10 times as many sticks before this fire,” stated Stobaugh.

The fire rekindled Friday Night even after efforts to put it out. “The area burned is around 75-85, something like that,” said Stobaugh.

According to Stobaugh, they have had some tough fires before, but nothing like this. “This is by far the largest acreage fire that I’ve seen here and I’ve been involved here since 1985,” said Stobaugh.

According to the Forestry Department and four other fire departments, they have worked to put out the flames. “Last night, just a tremendous amount of burning going on but it was all contained and all inside those parameters and we were able to keep it where it couldn’t hurt anything else,” said Stobaugh.

Robert Stobaugh said they will get through it, like they always do, although it has been tough.

“As it turns out, a lot of this being cleared out right now by fires is probably going to be a blessing at some point in the future. It’s not going to be anytime soon,” said Stobaugh.