Tuesday around noon, the fire at Natural Bridge State Resort Park was contained to about five acres. That began to change later that afternoon, thanks to high winds, dry conditions and rough terrain. Brandon Howard is a state forester with the Kentucky Division of Forestry who was on the scene Wednesday.
“Today the fire is around 100 acres. We're going to try to keep it where we're at that but, you know firefighter safety and the public safety is paramount here and so we'll, we'll do what we can and we'll keep we'll make sure everybody's safe.”
On Tuesday, about 50 local, state and federal firefighters were battling the blaze. The next day, that number doubled. Howard said Thursday might be even worse for firefighting.
“It’s gotten bigger, you know, the acreage number is dynamic it's a dynamic number you know. At the beginning of the day, you know, they all start off small by the end of the day, sometimes they get bigger.”
The fire was first reported Thursday, April 13. The following Tuesday, all trails and the skylift were shut down.
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