Crews battle brush fire at Indiana’s Brown County State Park

NASHVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Crews continued working Tuesday to douse a fire that began over the weekend in southern Indiana’s Brown County State Park and has scorched more than 100 acres.

The brush fire was reported Sunday evening on the east side of the park, Marty Benson, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Natural Resource, told The Herald-Times of Bloomington.

Local fire departments, DNR fire headquarters personnel and conservation officers arrived soon afterward at the scene of the slow-mowing fire.

The DNR’s fire unit eventually took over the fire-fighting effort and returned to the park at daybreak Monday. By sundown Monday, fire crews had created a fire line that halted the fire’s spread.

Although the crew’s goal was to have the fire under control Monday, Benson said a five-man DNR crew returned Tuesday to continue working the fire.

Brown County State Park is one of Indiana’s most popular state parks, particularly in the autumn, when crowds converge there to admire the colorful foliage.

The park is Indiana’s largest state park with 16,000 acres that span rugged hills, ridges and fog-shrouded ravines.