Two 15-acre wildfires hit rural Garland County | News

GARLAND COUNTY, Ark. (KTHV) - Firefighters battled two wildfires in rural Garland County Friday. And there was concern among the crews about lightening after showers started hitting the area.

Luckily those showers did not turn into anything serious for the incident. But a U.S. Forestry official told Today's THV that they received a dispatch of a heat shower directly above the fires they battled Friday. And a coworker reported leaving the scene and seeing some lightening coming out of that shower.

There is still no word on what caused the two 15-acre fires on both sides of Tina Herron Road off Highway 298 in Western Garland County, about 15 minutes from Hot Springs Village. It started around noon and was 100 percent contained by late Friday afternoon. But our THV cameras still caught some smoldering here and there when we arrived on scene.

There were no evacuations for residents in the area. We're told that volunteers fire departments played a key role in making sure that didn't happen for nearby homeowners.   

"When we got here the VFD's (volunteer fire departments) were already here and they were addressing homes, property, things of that nature, it really freed us up to kind of come in and use the dozers and work more in that regard," U.S. Forestry Worker Clayton Swanger said.

Along with the fire departments from Jessiville and Buckville, response came from the U.S. Forest Service, the Arkansas Forestry Commission and the Arkansas National Guard, which provided a Blackhawk helicopter to work from above. 

Crews have left the area for the night but will return in the morning to survey for any rekindling.