Situational Report – August 28, 2023

WebEOC Incident: 23-027-ExtremeHeatandWildfire-Statewide
State Declaration: 141 JBE 2023 –Heat Related Emergencies
WebEOC Requests: 54
Activation Level: 3

1.  Protect lives and properties
2.  Ensure safety of all responders
3.  Maintain communication and coordination on fire suppression especially in environmental and projected weather conditions of wind gust and low humidity
4.  Support provisions for public health from heat and water issues that result from these impacts
5.  Increase fire prevention messaging to the public
6.  Coordinate and manage all local, state and federal resources effectively
7.  Coordinate and integrate fire assets for tactical fire suppression

•Beauregard population impacted: Approximately 3700 (4 sheltered)
•Vernon population impacted: None sheltered at this time
•Rapides population impacted: None sheltered at this time

LDAF

• August (as of 8/28/23–12:00am) –41,250 Acres
• Southern Area Red IMT1 continued command of Tiger Island Fire
• Completed integration of additional assets including LA firefighters, EMAC firefighters, Arson Taskforce and enforcement patrol
• The Back 40 when reported on IC209 Form designated this fire as Ragle Road

LSP

• Approved additional staff to support the LA Sheriff’s Association with law enforcement operations due to multiple wildfires

LANG

• Assisting with security efforts as requested by BPSO
• Tiger Team reporting to Parish EOC today
• Chinook and crew to stay in LA until 9/4/2023
• Provided 3 Blackhawks in addition to the Chinook for fire suppression

Beauregard Parish

• 23 structures have been destroyed (5 homes confirmed)
• Home sweeps completed and cleared
• The Back 40 fire is still a concern
• Possible impact is 200 residents and 19K acres
• Possible impact of 2K residents in the Dry Creek area
• Mandatory evacuations have been reduced to voluntary evacuations as of 12:25pm (8/28/23)
• EOC relocating to War Memorial Civic Center
• Structural Damage reported due to severe weather at intersection of King Rd and Earl Barrett Rd (1 house reported damaged)
• All Beauregard parish schools will be open tomorrow (8/29/23)

Vernon Parish

• As of 9:00am (8/26/23) approaching 5000 acres
• As of 10:45am
• 2 homes destroyed due to Ida Fire
• 1 home destroyed due to Lions Camp Rd Fire
• Rain reported at Lions Camp Rd
• Mandatory evacuation for West Vernon Parish Waterworks District
• Vernon Parish residences along the following parish roads remain evacuated:
  • JD Mitchum Rd, JC Calcote Rd, JP Calcote Rd, JC Calcote Rd, Ida Bailey Rd, B Johnson Rd, West Boundary Rd, Lonnie JeaneRd, Graham Rd, Ronayne Rd, West Hawthorne Rd, Fort Stewart Rd, and Lions Camp Rd

Health and Medical

• 18 bed bound patients remain evacuated to Rosepine Nursing Home
• EMS TOC activated of RSI contract to provider personnel to assist management of EMS support
• Westwood Manor, Deridder Retirement Home, and Oceans Behavior Hospital remain evacuated
• 15 ambulances staged at War Memorial Civic Center in Deridder
• 4 EMS surge units assigned to “Red Team”
• 1 EMS surge unit assigned to support Ragle Rd fire

Food, Water and Shelter

• First United Methodist Church Shelter in DeRidder has closed
• 4 evacuees currently sheltered at First Baptist Church and remains available if shelter is needed
• ESF 6 provided current SNAP recipients information regarding any food losses due to fire
• Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief and Food Bank of Central Louisiana continue to provide food
• United Way of Southwest Louisiana, Feeding Louisiana, and the Salvation Army are positioned to provide food to impacted residents
• Catholic Charities have taken over the volunteer operations for the parish and are providing immediate needs for those impacted
• Mega shelter MSNS on standby
• Beauregard District No 2 Ward No 5 remains on partial BWA (affecting 450) as of 10:37pm (8/27/23)

Transportation

• All state highways in parish reopened
• Smoke affecting visibility on roadways

Communications

• All commercial carriers report no outages at this time
• LWIN tower in Merryville is fully operational
• LWIN Trailer 97 deployed as standby

Energy

• No power outages reported due to fires as of 3:25pm (8/28/23)
• Centerpoint Entergy returning to Merryville to begin gas restoration

HAZMAT

• LSP HAZMAT technicians could not access tank battery fire in Beauregard due to heat from surrounding fire