HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) -- Arson is suspected as the cause of a Cleburne County fire that blackened 560 acres of forest, authorities say.
The Arkansas Forestry Commission says the fire, the state's largest this year, destroyed part of a 12,000-acre pine plantation that belongs to Green Bay Packaging Inc., which has a pulp and paper mill near Morrilton.
Several nearby homes and barns were threatened, but none was damaged, and the only injury reported was a Forestry Commission ranger who was hospitalized for heat exhaustion.
''It appears to have been arson,'' State Forester John Shannon said Monday.
The fire, east of Heber Springs and Greers Ferry Lake, burned for two days between the towns of Wilburn and Ida before firefighters brought it under control.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
