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Arson suspected in fire at old Fort Chaffee

FORT SMITH, Ark. — Arson is suspected in fires fanned by winds exceeding 50 mph that spread through the old Fort Chaffee on Tuesday, engulfing about 150 vacant barracks but sparing the building where Elvis Presley received his military haircut 50 years ago.

Video of the scene showed flames raging sideways rather than upward because of the wind. By late afternoon, the fire had charred about 100 acres.

By 4 p.m. Tuesday, firefighters had tentatively brought the fire under control. Firefighters used bulldozers to cut firebreaks to prevent the fire’s movement to the east or south.

Elsewhere in Arkansas, the high winds felled trees and knocked out power to about 70,000 homes and businesses.

Sandy Sanders, the former executive director of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, said the fires had missed Building 803, where Presley submitted to a buzzcut March 25, 1958.

Some businesses that had moved onto the property, now called Chaffee Crossing since the U.S. military closed the post a decade ago, were evacuated and about 20 of those buildings burned, said Dr. Jerry Stewart, chairman of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority.

The post has housed refugees several times over the years, most recently those from the New Orleans area devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The barracks are inside Fort Smith’s city limits, but no residences were in danger, City Administrator Randy Reed said.

“They’re old barracks that are no longer in use. These were buildings that were scheduled to come down anyway,” Reed said.

Stewart said there were about 600 empty barracks and buildings at the former post and that it would cost an estimated $20 million to demolish them because of worries about asbestos and lead, according to a study of the fort.

Tonya Roberts, deputy coordinator for the Sebastian County Department of Emergency Management, said at a news conference that authorities received the first fire call at 11:24 a.m. When firefighters arrived, they spotted another fire at a location south of the original fire, Roberts said.

Both fires began in unoccupied buildings that had no electricity. Roberts said there is some suspicion of arson, but Sgt. Jarrard Copeland of Fort Smith Police stressed that the fires might have been ignited by a number of causes, including accidental burning.

Tom Young, chief deputy of the Sebastian County sheriff’s office, said the flames spread quickly.

“Probably within 30 minutes, it had quite a bit of the area out there on fire,” Young said.

Winds were gusting to 55 mph at midday. The state Forestry Commission said high winds prevented the state from using aerial tankers to fight 31 fires that broke out in the state Monday.

Built in 1941, the 72,000-acre former military base was once the training site for thousands of troops heading overseas during World War II. The installation was closed as an active Army post in 1997. Around that time, about 6,000 acres were declared surplus for private development and the Arkansas National Guard took over security of the remaining 66,000 acres.

Over the past four decades, the post has served three times as a refugee center.

In the mid-1970s, following the end of the Vietnam War and the takeover of South Vietnam by communist North Vietnam, refugees from South Vietnam were housed at Fort Chaffee.

In 1980, it was used to provide housing for refugees from Cuba who arrived in the U.S. in the Mariel Boatlift.

Most recently, refugees from New Orleans, devastated by Hurricane Katrina, were housed at the post in 2005.