LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Reuters) – Firefighters in three Nebraska counties battled expanding wildfires on Wednesday and an Arkansas town of 1,300 people was evacuated because of an approaching fire, as the central part of the United States suffered through another day of stifling heat.
Authorities evacuated the entire town of Ola, Arkansas, population 1,300 people, on Wednesday afternoon because of an encroaching wildfire. The town, 74 miles west of Little Rock, was especially vulnerable because a warehouse in which fireworks were stored is feared to be in the path of the flames.
The fire jumped a highway and also forced the evacuation of a rural area near Ola, authorities said. There have so far been no injuries or deaths fr om the Arkansas blaze so far.
While the Arkansas wildfire itself is small, burning only about 100 acres so far, a dispatcher for the Yell County Office of Emergency Management said only about 50 percent of the fire had been contained.
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