Emergency management crews are monitoring conditions closely this weekend and the coming days with an elevated risk for wildfires throughout North Texas.
“The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area is going to be in areas of high and extreme fire danger into early next week. That’s a combination of fuel dryness, what our weather is going to be doing,” Kari Hines with the Texas A&M Forest Service said Friday. “A pretty broad area across most of North Texas is going to be [in] high fire danger.”
In preparation for a possible response, Hines said they have pre-positioned resources across the state.
“You have firefighters themselves. So people who are on fire equipment, heavy equipment, bulldozers,” she listed as examples.
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In the coming days, emergency officials are asking the public to stay vigilant. In Johnson County, emergency management director Jamie Moore said a burn ban has been in place for months. He said unfortunately, they have had to respond to a few fires considered “human-caused”.
One fire last week torched about 600 acres, Moore said. It started after a chain was being dragged behind a trailer.
“Very simple things can go a long way in preventing wildfires from occurring,” he said. “The biggest thing we can do is to put the word out that, hey just because it rained, we still have a very high power danger.”
On Friday, Fire Chief Mike Bell with the North Hood County Fire Department shared a similar message. 10 fire departments responded to a fire by a farm near Temple Hall Highway north of Granbury. It took about 30 minutes to contain, Chief Bell said.
The fire is still under investigation, but Chief Bell said they have confirmed a welder was working by the farm. It’s unclear whether he had a fire watch or someone to ensure sparks are not causing a grass fire.
“During a burn ban, if he did not have a spotter or fire watch, he will get cited,” he said. “We just want to caution everybody. Even a cigarette butt being dumped out right now can create big problems for us, especially the volunteer fire departments.”
Some of the crews responded to the massive Eastland Complex wildfire last week, along with the “Big L” in Erath and Hood counties. Chief Bell credits the speedy stop to the fire Friday by Temple Hall Highway to their actions.
“We’ve got a lot of good firefighters here. They recognize during the day, we have very few people. They start calling fire departments right away,” Bell said. “We work hand in hand with the 11 fire departments around us and luckily, they all got here and put it out.”
No injuries were reported from the fire north of Granbury on Friday, nor were there any structural damages.
