Firefighters battled several grass fires in north, northwest Fort Worth neighborhoods
Firefighters battled at least three grass fires in Fort Worth on Thursday morning as high temperatures and drought conditions in the city continued to cause blazes.
There were no reports of injuries or damage to structures in the grass fires, which were in north and northwest Fort Worth.
Fire department engineer Craig Trojacek said Thursday that firefighters responded to several small grass fires overnight in the city.
The first reported Thursday morning and one of the larger ones was just after 6:30 a.m. in the 6100 block of Silver Creek and Azle roads in northwest Fort Worth.
Just minutes later, firefighters were at the scene of a fire in the 2900 block of Azle Avenue.
Just after 7:30 a.m., several fire trucks were at a grass fire in the 100 block of Northeast 32nd Street.
Estimates of the fires’ size were not immediately available, but Trojacek said they were all under control.
“We’re excited to see the clouds,” Trojacek said referring to the rain chances for Thursday in Tarrant County and North Texas. “But we expect to stay busy with the grass fires.”
Earlier this week, the Fort Worth Fire Department reported that it has experienced a substantial increase in fires this summer compared to the last two years.
Between July 5 and Monday, Fort Worth firefighters had responded to 362 grass fires, a 704% increase from the same two-week period in 2021. The fire department has responded to a total of 607 such fires this summer, with 245 reported between June 1 and July 3
Last year, there were 129 grass fires between June 1 and July 18.
While the temperatures in Dallas-Fort Worth broke record highs at 109 on Tuesday afternoon, the Fort Worth Fire Department responded to a three-alarm grass fire on the westbound side of Interstate 30 just east of East Loop 820 in east Fort Worth.
With 12 engines and eight brush trucks on hand, 70 fire personnel were on scene for several hours in the heavily wooded area to extinguish the fire, the fire department said in a Facebook post. Due to the extreme heat, crews needed to be rotated out to ensure firefighters were hydrated and safe.
Fire officials said residents can help by removing or reducing the amount of brush around homes and businesses, and avoid parking cars, trucks or recreational vehicles on dry grass or shrubs.
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Current North Texas Wildfires
This map shows wildfires that have been updated within the past 7 days from the Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information (IRWIN) and the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). The larger the circle, the larger the wildfire by acres. Data is from the US Department of the Interior, Office of Wildland Fire, IRWIN, NIFC, NASA, NOAA and ESRI.
