State Fire Marshals issued a warning to a man who owns land on Highway 358 in Church Point, after it went up in flames on Thursday.
I reached out to the owner of the property.
He told us the plan is to start a crawfish and rice farm this Spring.
"I don't want my name on the news," the landowner said. "If you say 'Landowner says the contractor had permission to burn because he got it from the fire department, I'm cool with that."
This afternoon, Matthew Rabalais, Chief of Administration for the St. Landry Fire District told Rigid Constructors they had to stop setting fires on Highway 358.
The landowner said he plans to help boost economic development in Church Point by re-developing the land.
"I'm going to create jobs and we'll have crawfish," the landowner said. "It was trees. So, all of the neighbors are all thanking me for bringing it back to where it was when they first moved there."
Three of his neighbors reached out to KATC for help after their growing worry about the fires. Residents Ian Richard said he has some safety concerns.
"The smoke, you can smell it from right here, I can feel the heat off of that fire and we're about 100 feet away from it," Richard said. "I don't think they should be doing this. I don't know who to call to shut it down."
The landowner said his contractors were clearing the land to prepare it for growing rice and raising crawfish.
A burn ban is still in place across the state.
Authorities from the State Fire Marshal's Office said the landowner was given a warning.
