Paragould clubhouse loses decades of memories in fire

VIDEO: A Paragould golf course is picking up the pieces after losing its clubhouse to a fire. Paragould police say 18-year-old Davin Jones drove into the Fox Hills Country Club’s clubhouse while intoxicated. They said Jones ran off Country Club Road and destroyed a leaderboard sign before plowing into the clubhouse, where his vehicle caught fire. “It’s such a really shocking call to get, you know, early in the morning,” Mike Gooch, the country club’s president, said of the police call he received. The fire destroyed the building and everything inside, including plaques dating back to the 1950s and decades-old photos of past champions. “Anything imaginable that you could get an award for was up on the wall,” Gooch said. “We lost all of it.” Despite the loss, Gooch is just glad no one was inside the building when it caught fire.
KAIT-TV ABC/NBC/CW+ 8 Jonesboro

Plane crash reported in Lonoke County on Highway 232, pilot evacuated

The Lonoke County Sheriff's office and the Arkansas State Police responded to a call of a plane crash at 8:30 a.m. that occurred in Lonoke County. Classified as an aerial applicator, the small plane appeared to get "entangled in lines." The crash took place on Highway 232 at Lasiter Road. The pilot was found with serious injuries and medflighted to UAMS, according to the Lonoke County Sheriff's office. The Arkansas State Police and the Federal Aviation Administration are currently working to determine what happened.
KATV ABC 7 Little Rock

Volunteer fire departments in Lawrence County continue search for firefighters

Area volunteer fire departments are continuing their search for firefighters. Data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says that 84% of departments across Arkansas are completely volunteer. That statistic is true in Imboden. The department is currently manned by 18 volunteers, which Fire Chief Bill Powell explained is a good number for the town. But recently, the department took over the Smithville Fire Department after its volunteer numbers drastically dropped. “That stretches us out because sometimes we’ve got a 14- to 15-minute response time to get to that area over there,” Powell said. “Response times are going to be hurting a little bit.” He said it’s a problem many small towns are seeing. “It’s getting harder to get people to volunteer and work in their community,” Powell stated.
KAIT-TV ABC/NBC/CW+ 8 Jonesboro

Vehicle drives into Fayetteville restaurant, sends one person to hospital

VIDEO: A vehicle drives into the Flying Burrito restaurant on College Avenue in Fayetteville on April 30 injuring two people. According to Sgt. Steven Mauk with the Fayetteville Police Department, a multiple-vehicle crash on College Ave. sent one vehicle off the road and into the restaurant drive-thru area. An employee in that part of the building was pinned in, creating a complex rescue for the Fayetteville Fire Department. “It’s a fairly labor intensive job, especially if you have two vehicles out in the roadway or in the ditch, but in this case, you have structural components of the building and also you have the feed of natural gas, water, and electricity to consider,” Battalion Chief Travis Boudrey said. Boudrey said they cut off the utilities and firefighters were able to get the employee out through the window.
KNWA-TV NBC 51 Rogers