PHOTO: This screenshot from iDriveArkansas captures a fire as it spread from a fully engulfed camper to the wooded area off the shoulder of Interstate 30 near the Clark/Hot Spring county line. \ Arkansas Department of Transportation screenshot
FRIENDSHIP, Arkansas — Three days after a large roadside fire prompted response from multiple agencies, Interstate 30 was again the scene where area fire departments rushed to douse yet another inferno.
At about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, Hot Spring County officials requested backup from Clark County fire departments at the 83 westbound mile marker, between the on and off ramps at the Friendship exit, to help battle a fully engulfed camper, the flames from which spread to the grass and woods adjacent to the highway. Within half an hour the camper was in smoldering ruins.
Half a mile northeast of the camper fire, a grass fire in the median also snarled traffic as firemen fought back flames. It wasn’t immediately known whether the two fires were related.
One person commented on Arkadelphian’s Facebook post about the fire that she had traveled through the area. “So much smoke,” Tiffany Pace said. “Ash like snow. The fire is in several different places, probably a half mile total. Both the median … and the westbound side of the forest are on fire.” She said at about 3 p.m. that the westbound lane was clogged for five miles. Traffic was flowing again by 3:15 p.m.
At least two local agencies — East Clark County and DeGray rural volunteer fire departments — were requested to haul in water with tanker trucks.
Tuesday’s fire comes on the heels of a Saturday blaze that spread quickly just two miles northeast of the Friendship exit and that shut down I-30 as the Arkansas Division of Forestry used bulldozers and air tankers to stop the inferno’s spread.
The entire state remains under a “high” risk for wildfire, and burn bans have been issued in all but a dozen counties in the far northeastern corner of the state.