Local agencies work on woods fire in Hancock County

Fire crews are hard at work in Hancock County trying to contain this woods fire that has been going on for several day.

Fire crews say homes close to the scene are safe. The fire is contained to about 60 percent with more than 450 acres being burned so far.  “It’s just the real low humidity days and high wind. That’s what’s causing the red flag warnings, that’s what’s causing the fire danger to increase and pick up.”

Some residents of the area say the fire started last week, but was contained until high winds on Wednesday swept the Fenton area.

Fenton Volunteer Department, along with Hancock Fire, the Mississippi Forestry Commission, and other fire and rescue departments have battled the flames ever since.

Resident John Valenta said, “And they started clearing the brush to make the roads and last week they started burning. The smoke was coming from the south and the smoke was so thick we couldn’t even be outside. This past Wednesday, unfortunately, the wind changed and it went from the west to the east and that’s what started the big fire.”

The fire threatened multiple structures Thursday, but thanks to the efforts of local fire agencies, none have been damaged and there are no injuries to report.

Mississippi Forestry Commission PIO Kevin Craft said, “Our local fire department is doing structure protection or making sure that the fires not encroaching on the structures. While our wildland firefighters from the Mississippi Forestry Commission are out in the woods, creating what we call fire breaks which is stopping the progression of fire by using bulldozers.”