The Arkansas National Guard is supplying a pair of Blackhawk helicopters with 660-gallon buckets to help the state Forestry Commission fight wildfires through the weekend.
The commission said Wednesday that it anticipates plenty of wildfires as high temperatures, increasing winds and low humidity make worse an already extreme chance of fire. Forecasters are predicting Arkansas will have an above-normal risk of wildfires through at least the end of the month.
The assessment won't come as a shock to many, but the National Weather Service said that the indicator is one more reason to take regular precautions against accidentally starting a fire.
The forecast by the National Interagency Coordination Center shows Arkansas, along with parts of surrounding states, at high risk of wildfires.
The state has endured weeks of high temperatures and a couple of months of drought.
Officials are urging people to not use fireworks to celebrate Independence Day.
Officials have urged people to not use fireworks to celebrate Independence Day.
The Forestry Commission has suppressed a fire that claimed 550 acres in Pope County and led to the temporary evacuation of 144 homes on Tuesday. No homes were lost and the fire was fully contained by 2 a.m. Wednesday.
A fire near Maumelle in Pulaski County has also been suppressed after it burned 80 acres.
Air tankers were being used to fight a wildfire in Logan County earlier in the week.
A Yell County fire had consumed 275 acres by Monday.
On Monday, firefighters responded to seven wildfires that burned 13 acres.
The Forestry Commission says crews suppressed 63 wildfires over the weekend statewide. The fires burned just over 2,000 acres.
For the month of June, the agency says there were 324 fires that burned 4,873 acres. That's about four times as much territory as burned in June a year ago, when 157 fires damaged 1,263 acres.