CALHOUN COUNTY, AR — (BrooklandNews.com) — Sep. 15, 2026 — A wildfire that broke out Monday afternoon inside Camden’s Highland Industrial Park forced evacuations across a large stretch of western Calhoun County before firefighters reported it contained by Monday night.
The fire, identified on the Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s wildfire dashboard as the “Bunker Fire,” was first reported around 1:15 p.m. near the intersection of Arkansas highways 274 and 205, in the heart of the industrial park. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation order shortly after 8 p.m. for residents living north of Arkansas Highway 278 between Calhoun Road 10 and Calhoun Road 95, telling them to evacuate immediately. Arkansas 203 and Arkansas 274 were closed to all but emergency personnel.
Southern Arkansas University Tech evacuated its campus and the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy, which is also located there, moving on-campus students to the Camden Fairview High School gymnasium, with buses provided for students without their own transportation. “The safety of our students comes first and we trust that the fires will be out soon,” a post from the college said. Temporary shelters were also opened at Victory Baptist Church and the Hampton High School library.
By about 10:50 p.m., fire crews reported the blaze contained after burning roughly 200 acres. Units from outside the immediate area were released from the scene, though Camden and East Camden crews remained on standby overnight. The Arkansas Forestry Division assisted, along with firefighting resources from companies operating inside the industrial park itself.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders addressed the fire in a post on X, saying, “We’re closely monitoring the ongoing fire at Highland Industrial Park in Camden.” The park is home to several major U.S. defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Raytheon, some of which manufacture munitions and rocket motor components on site, though no damage to those facilities had been reported as of Monday night.
Calhoun County, with fewer than 4,700 residents, is one of Arkansas’ most sparsely populated counties. Monday’s fire came amid what has been an active wildfire season across the state; the governor declared a state of emergency in late August after multiple large wildfires, including a roughly 2,000-acre fire in neighboring Union County, prompted evacuations and burn bans across dozens of Arkansas counties.