"Unpredictable winds, continued extreme heat and ultra-dry conditions fueled wildfires Saturday in western Louisiana, with officials ordering more residents to evacuate late into the evening.

“There’s nobody alive who’s seen conditions this dangerous,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday afternoon at the Vernon Parish Emergency Operations Center.

Fires have caused the most damage in Beauregard Parish, and evacuation orders continued into the night there and to the immediate north in portions of Vernon Parish.

In all, 17 parishes have declared a state of emergency for wildfires, most in the forested central and western sections of Louisiana, but also in some of the pine-laden Florida Parishes along its Mississippi border, as well as St. John the Baptist, Orleans and St. Bernard parishes in the southeast where dry swampland and coastal marsh are prevalent."

Greg LaRose reports for the States Newsroom August 27, 2023. [2]