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Area firefighters battle large grass fire in Nolan County |
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Written by Staff Reports
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Monday, 11 May 2009 |
Area firefighters responded to a grass fire on north Stink Creek Road in Nolan County Friday afternoon. Agencies that responded to the fire include Trent VFD, two brush trucks; Merkel VFD, two brush trucks; Mulberry Canyon VFD, two brush trucks; Roscoe VFD, one tanker and one brush truck; Maryneal VFD, one brush truck; Nolan VFD, one tanker and one brush truck; Lake Sweetwater VFD, one brush truck; Sweetwater FD, three brush trucks; Texas Forrest Service, assisted with mapping and resource management; and Union Pacific Railroad, field representative.
“We called the Texas Forest Service (TFS) for assistance and they had no resources available due to the fact that they had all moved out to far West Texas,” said Sweetwater Emergency Services Manager Grant Madden. “It took the responding agencies about four hours to completely extinguish the blaze.”
According to Madden, two firemen were overheated but neither of them required hospitalization. While firefighters were fighting the fire, the temperature was 104 degrees with humidity at 20 percent. Winds went from 12 MPH from the south west to 15 MPH from the north. “This made it hard to control since it was being pushed one direction and then the other,” said Madden.
The dry conditions and high temperatures made this a rapid moving fire that proved tough to contain. The firemen were able to save two homes and three outbuildings. “By the time it was all extinguished, right at 211 acres were burned along with a number of transmission line poles that the power company was already preparing to replace before we cleared the scene,” said Madden.
Train traffic was shut down while aggressive fire attacks were carried out and the cause is not readily clear due to the wind change and the exact spot of origin not being clear. “The Union Pacific Representative did tell me they had stopped the trains that had been through the area and were checking them for problems that could have possibly started the fire,” added Madden.
There was no damage to building or structures other than a few telephone poles, some heavy timber cattle pens and numerous fence posts. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 May 2009 )
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