Gov. John Bel Edwards visited Beauregard Parish on Tuesday to give an update on the Tiger Island Fire and other fires across Louisiana.

“The effort to control, to contain, to extinguish these wildfires continues,” he said.

Throughout the state, about 60,000 acres have burned as a result of 600 fires this month. The Tiger Island Fire — which is 50 percent contained — has taken up over half of this acreage with 31,242 acres affected, according to the Southern Area Red Type Incident Management Team.

Edwards said that while the rainfall that blew through Southwest Louisiana Monday helped efforts, the tenth of an inch of rain “was not enough to materially change the conditions.”

“No one should be laboring under the misapprehension that we’re back to normal in Louisiana, far from it.”

Weather forecasts predict that more “critically dangerous fire conditions” are expected for the month of September, with drier air, lower humidity, high winds, above-average temperature and sunny conditions.

Michael Strain, Louisiana commissioner of agriculture and forestry, said he’s never seen this level of drought in the state during his lifetime.

The fire conditions are being worsened by the debris that has remained in the forests since Hurricanes Laura and Delta. He said that in Louisiana, there are over one million acres of timber on the ground.

Edwards said the fuel in Beauregard combined with the incoming weather could easily lead to reignited fires that can move up to half a mile per hour.

“You put all that together and you have a very volatile situation.”

Edwards called this a “long-duration event,” and reiterated the critical importance of abiding by the burn ban.

“There simply is not an excuse to be burning anything outside in Louisiana these days, and when that changes, we’re going to let you know.”

He said that on Monday, 20 citations were issued in the Beauregard area for violating the burn ban.

The firefighting efforts have been robust, Edwards said. More than 1,000 people have been engaged in fighting the Tiger Island Fire and Vernon Parish fires, as well as an “unprecedented amount” of aircrafts and dozers.

He thanked local municipalities, law enforcement and fire departments that fought the fires from the very beginning, stating their work “set the stage” for state services.

Steve Parrish, Southern Area Red Incident Management team incident commander, said their team is composed of local, state and federal levels of government. This collaboration has led to progress.

“You can cover the patches and say that we work as one, and that we work better together. You don’t see agencies right now, we’re all working towards a common goal, and that’s putting the fire out and protecting the public and the communities surrounding the area.

He said that despite upcoming weather conditions, the Tiger Island Fire should not be as difficult to manage as it was last week.

“The difference from this point forward is that we’ve been able to catch up on a lot of ground, so it’s not like we’re fighting the whole entire perimeter now.

The resources that are now at Beauregard’s disposal will also make extinguishing spot fires easier.

Edwards said situations similar to the Tiger Island Fire could arise due to climate change. To mitigate damages in wildfire, the State plans to invest time, effort, training, personnel and equipment  to more “readily and adequately respond” to future fire events.