NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. during training on a machine gun range at Camp Robinson.
During the training, some rounds of ammo landed in the grass and created a spark that started a fire.
"At the time it wasn't interfering with training, so training continued," said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Leimberg. "Based on the location of the range and everything it was allowed to go ahead and burn, and we were hoping it would burn itself out on the range. Evidently, it got to the woods and it started creeping out."
The plume of smoke could be seen for miles creating a haze for much of the metro.
Some good news though— there is a fire break around the range, so officials said that there is no danger of it spreading any further.
The gun range at Camp Robinson is 69 acres. Officials expect it to consume about 700 acres.
The area is heavily wooded and difficult to access, so they will let it burn to those breaks rather than push hard to knock it down.
Forestry firefighters and a training team have teamed up to fight the fire.
They expect the fire to be out by Saturday.