County firefighters contain 100 acre grass fire

Jul. 7—Multiple fire departments battled to contain a grass fire that burned around 100 acres Wednesday evening between Eustace and Athens.

Henderson County Fire Marshal Shane Renberg was notified of the fire at 4:54 p.m. and was told it was spreading fast and was nearing structures. At one point, FM 2709 was shut down in both directions.

Twelve area fire departments, the Texas Forest Service, Fire Marshal, EMS, and officials from Precincts 1, 2, and 4 responded to the scene.

Officials urged people to stay out of the area and an evacuation area was set up in the Eustace High School Gym parking lot, with The Red Cross onsite.

While no structures were burned, one home was evacuated. Just after 7 p.m., it was announced that the evacuation area would stand down, to be reestablished if needed.

Because the fire included an inaccessible area of woods, firefighters from the Texas Fire Service and Baxter VFD used bulldozers to cut firebreaks around the blaze.

By 7:30 p.m., drones from the Sheriff's Office and Trinidad VFD, along with the Texas Forest Service, were able to verify that 95% of the fire was contained.

Renberg said the area will be smoldering for days.

"The first indications are that the fire was started by sparks coming off a vehicle going down the road," he said. "It is really dry out there right now and it isn't taking much to start a fire."

Fire departments that responded included Athens, Payne Springs, Eustace, North 19, South Van Zandt, Murchison, Baxter, Mabank, Southside, Trinidad, Brownsboro, and Log Cabin.

Henderson County remains under a burn ban. Throughout the state, 190 counties have active burn bans in place, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

Forest Service firefighters responded to five new wildfires this week that burned 172 acres.

In 2022, firefighters have already responded to 5,047 wildfires that have burned 527,241 acres across the state.

Wildfires do not need to be tens of thousands of acres to threaten the community. A wildfire of 100 acres or less can be just as destructive as a large wildfire, according to the Forest Service. Over the past several decades, various Texas communities have lost numerous homes, businesses, commercial crops, livestock and human lives.

This year, wildfire activity has trended above normal for acres burned and number of fire responses. State and local fire resources have responded to an average of 4,047 wildfires for 188,259 acres over the past five years.