Fires and tornado warnings: Ozark County has another wild weather week

Ozark County emergency personnel are hoping this week is a little calmer after a week of wildfires, structure fires and late-night tornado warnings have kept them busy.

Most recently it was the threat of tornadoes that had emergency personnel on high alert, as the National Weather Service office in Springfield issued two tornado warnings for Ozark County Sunday night.

The first tornado warning was issued at 7:58 p.m. and was for western Ozark County, including the communities of Theodosia, Isabella, Pontiac and the Bull Shoals Lake area.

According to the NWS, radar had indicated strong rotation in a storm approaching the area. That warning expired about 8:45 p.m.

The unsettled weather remained, and at 9:50 p.m., the NWS office in Springfield issued a second tornado warning for Ozark County, this time for the eastern side of the county with locations being impacted including Sycamore, Bakersfield, Gainesville, Dora, Tecumseh, Zanoni, Udall, Hardenville and Sycamore. That warning expired at 10:30 p.m.

The warning was issued after radar indicated rotation in a storm about 17 miles north of Mountain Home, Arkansas.

Twisters from the storm system, that stretched from Texas to Illinois, had touched down and caused damage in central and northeast Arkansas. A tornado in Iowa killed seven people.

For Ozark County though, the proverbial bullet was dodged, officials say.

The Ozark County Sheriff’s Department reported no damage from the storm, except for a couple trees down, even though a funnel cloud was reportedly spotted in the air about 4 miles north of Gainesville. 

Heavy rain and nickel-size hail was reported near Dora, along with a lightning strike of a tree.

Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin said he had heard no reports of damage, but he did field a few calls about the loud storm warning sirens.

Fiery week

The wild weather week may have reminded some of the popular 1970s band “Earth, Wind and Fire.”

For local volunteer fire departments, the latter was what kept them hopping.

One VFD in particular, Bakersfield, was extra-busy.

“I don’t know what it was, but at one point it almost seemed like everything was on fire,” said Bakersfield VFD chief Greg Watts. 

Last week as temperatures soared into the 70s and even low 80s in some areas, grass and brush fires popped up all over, especially heavy in the southeast portion of the county.

The Bakersfield Volunteer Fire Department’s Facebook page pleaded with people “STOP BURNING!!!” after a brush fire destroyed a camper on V Highway on March 3.

That same day, the Bakersfield VFD also responded to a structure fire in Gamaliel, Ark., that destroyed a home and a grass fire on County Road 319A that burned several acres.

On March 2, Bakersfield VFD responded with other firefighters to a large field fire on County Road 7920 as high winds and dry grass fueled the fires.

Just the day before, Bakersfield had spent a considerable amount of time battling a grass fire on O Highway.

Things went from bad to worse over the weekend as firefighters responded to a late-night structure fire on County Road 593A. On Sunday, the Bakersfield VFD and other departments responded to a garage fire near Bakersfield and a large brush fire in Caulfield.

Firefighters remained on high alert during the Sunday night storms, and Bakersfield firefighters were called out after the storms for yet another structure fire with injuries on County Road 7470 near Caulfield.

The homeowner told fire officials that he awoke to what he described as a loud explosion. He managed to escape from the fire but did have significant burns and was taken by ambulance to Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains.

Caulfield VFD chief Shannon Sisney said lightning from Sunday’s storm is being listed as the cause of that fire. He said the injured man reportedly had second degree burns from the fire and even more severe burns possible. His name has not been released.

Even with the ground-soaking Sunday rains, it will only offer a short reprieve.

“What people don’t realize is that, even though the ground is wet or muddy, dead grass and brush dries out real quick on these warm and windy days,” Gainesville fire chief Ed Doiron said in a recent interview. “It’s just not a good idea to be burning on days like this.”

Watts said he hopes to get a few days rest from the fires with the Sunday night rains. “We need a little breather,” Watts said. “We also need to do some repairs on a couple of our trucks,” he said. The fire chief said one of the department’s brush trucks is in the shop with possible engine issues.

If the warm and windy weather of last week isn’t your cup of tea, then you might be interested in Thursday’s forecast which is calling for an 80-percent chance of snow with lows in the teens … but followed by windy and warm conditions on Sunday with highs in the low 60s.