A wildfire breakout in southern Brown County Saturday kept area fire departments busy this weekend.
Brownwood fire officials said that 15 fires were ignited along County Road 267 and County Road 237 Saturday afternoon. Fire units from every Brown County fire department responded to the fires along with support from Coleman, McCulloch and San Saba Counties.
The fire units worked to get the fires under control by Saturday evening with the help of bulldozers.
The Texas Forest Service was on scene Sunday with 3 D6 bull dozers and a fire engine as well as area fire units working at the fire scene and checking for hot spots.
According to Phillip Truitt, Wildland Urban Interface Specialist Texas A&M Forest Service, approximately 350 acres burned in the fires off of 267 and about 25 acres burned on the fire off of 237.
Truitt stated that the agencies involved cooperated well together.
“There was great communication between the departments involved, everyone worked great as a team,” said Truitt. “It really makes a difference to Brown County to know how well the departments work together to help get the fires out quickly. It was fortunate that firefighters were able to contain the fires to smaller size because the winds were low Saturday.”Officials said that the cause of the multiple fires was from a sparking wheel on a vehicle hauling heavy equipment down the county roads.
No structures were damaged through the Saturday fire outbreak.
Brown County will soon have a TFS Task Force stationed at Camp Bowie. According to Truitt, there will be approximately 11 crewmembers at the TFS Task Force’s new headquarters. Clearing of land for buildings to be brought in has begun and completion of the headquarters is expected sometime this summer, said Truitt.
For more information on how to prepare homes and protect property from wildfires, visit www.texasfirewise.com.
