ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / November 4, 2000

GARYVILLE – Except for a few hot spots and some smoldering smoke, the marsh fire that has caused traffic headaches for St. James and St. Johnthe Baptist parishes for the past month is finally under control.

“Ninety-nine percent of the fire is now contained within the berm,” said St. John Parish Director of Public Safety Bertram Madere. “We will stillget some smoldering for some time, but the fire is contained.”The berm, a levee of mud built around the fire by parish and National Guard bulldozers, extends about 7 miles around the fire. In addition to that thereis a 3-foot trench around the area because most of the fire is underground and being fueled by peat and dry conditions. The trench, according toNational Guard Lt. Col. John Jones, will stop the fire in its tracks.While the fire is contained within the berm, Kaiser Aluminum is pumping in water from the Mississippi River at a rate of 2,000 gallons a minute.

Parish officials also opened drainage canals in the area and let water seep into the swamp.

The National Guard brought in three UH60 Blackhawk helicopters that were equipped with fire fighting water buckets, and they soaked the area with water for three days.

Even though the fire is under control, authorities are still putting water into the area.

“We are still pumping water into the berm to get the hot spots,” said Madere. “Right now we are on a standby mode, and we will keep an eye onthings over the weekend.”The helicopters’ services were discontinued on Thursday because the rotors were doing more harm than good. As a helicopter would dump abucket of water, the wind from it’s rotors would fan the fire and make things worse. So the choppers concentrated their dumping on areas aroundthe berm and away from the fire.

The fire is located in the swamp on the north side of Airline Highway and to the south of Interstate 10 and just inside the St. John Parish line.Because of the recent drought, emergency officials were dealing with a very rare condition – a dry swamp.

Walking near the center of the fire, Gerald Falgoust, director of the St.

James Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness, was amazed at how dry the swamp was.

“Last year we would have needed hip boots to be walking in here,” said Falgoust. “We should be standing in 12 inches of water.”The center of the fire is a large field of burnt bull-rushes and grass. Alone cypress stands in the middle of the field, a testament to survival as smoke and heat surround it.

The ground is gray and black charred and hot, and smoke seeps up from underground in long lazy spirals. Every few feet small flames spring up. Through the haze, National Guard bulldozers churned their way through the broken trees and tilled earth as they hurriedly try to build the berm around the fire.

“We have a lot of water to put in here,” said Falgoust. “The swamp sucks itup like a sponge.”The fire, which started in St. James Parish about four weeks ago, hascaused headaches for both parishes. Because of a temperature inversionthat occurs in the morning the smoke from the fire mixed with morning fog and caused dangerously-low visibility on local highways.

Police from both parishes closed down River Road and Airline Highway between Gramercy and Reserve every morning for two weeks. Hundreds ofcommuters were late for work because of the delays.

St. James public schools were not opened until 11 a.m. every day so schoolbuses could safely pick up students. According to parish officials, thesmoke literally closed down the parish.

The fire and smoke is also blamed for the death of two women from Plaquemine who died in an accident at the intersection of U.S. Highway 61and Louisiana Highway 3274. There were also 12 separate accidents on theVeterans Memorial Bridge one morning because of the dense smoke.

St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said that at the height of the fire hehad all of his deputies at every major intersection in the parish by 3 a.m.to prevent any accidents.

“In the morning, the smoke paralyzes St. James Parish, and parts of St.John,” said Martin.

St. John Parish President Nickie Monica and St. James Parish PresidentDale Hymel Jr. both called a state of emergency and both parishes willshare in state money used to cover the situation.

“It’s a lucky thing that the wind didn’t change direction,” said Monica, “or we would have been shut down like St. James Parish.”

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