Texas Governor Greg Abbott declares disaster in response to Chalk Mountain Fire
Thousands of acres of Somervell County, once farmland and woods and fields, are now a mosaic of black earth and pale ash-covered land
On Monday, Jace Bridges stood outside his cousin’s house watching flames 20 feet above the treetops, licking at the sky and spitting smoke while he and other family members worked to get whatever they could from the house.
That house isn’t there now. Some family members were able to get the dogs out, along with guns and some other property while others used garden hoses, a chain saw and rakes to work to keep the flames at bay a little longer.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed Saturday a disaster declaration for Somervell County in response to the Chalk Mountain Fire near Glen Rose, the largest currently burning wildfire in the state, opening up more resources for fighting the fire and assisting with recovery even as the flames still send plumes of smoke into the sky, some miles apart, in the middle of the affected area.
The fire, which is officially 10% contained, has burned more than 6,700 acres since Monday in an area about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. There were two minor injuries and 16 homes destroyed, Abbott said at a news conference Saturday in Glen Rose. At least five more homes were damaged and dozens were evacuated.
Lee Anderson, a chief with the Texas A&M Forest Service, called the 10% containment measurement “conservative” and said the public should expect that number to increase soon.
Anderson told the Star-Telegram the current timeline for the fire to be fully extinguished is two weeks, but that could change depending on weather conditions and if other fires in the area pop up. Lines of fire retardant and trenches dug by bulldozers should help prevent the fire from spreading further.
While the fire is still burning, Abbott said, some residents who evacuated can now return to begin assessing the damages to their homes and property. Insurance claims should be filed as soon as possible, Abbott said, and any residents whose property has been damaged should self-report at damage.tdem.texas.gov.
Anybody whose property was affected can go to the Somervell Expo Center for resources, including help from the Red Cross and the local organization LDL Foundation. The shelter at the center is now empty and will be closing Saturday.
New donations of money and clothes delivered to the Expo Center will end at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Abbott said, but financial donations can be made to LDL at any First Financial Bank branch.
Texas Department of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said the local firefighting agencies should be commended for calling for help from the state as early as they did.
“We see this a lot, that a lot of local agencies think they can handle this alone and then they can’t,” Kidd said.
He said the fact that the local fire departments called for help from the state so quickly kept the fire from getting even more out of hand and gave them access to more resources that helped curtail the spread earlier on.
Andy Gray and Robert Duggan, public information officers with Blue Incident Management Southern Division, said not only was the response by local firefighters more efficient than in many other places but the response from the community was more enthusiastic.
“It’s been something of a love fest,” Gray said. “We haven’t seen a community support in such an overwhelming manner.”
Team Blue is using resources from out of state, including “super scooper” planes that can gather water from lakes without landing to use to extinguish fires, and satellite and aircraft imagery to help fight the fire. The community is using donations and small business resources to support firefighters and those affected by the wildfire.
Marilyn Phillips is one of the Glen Rose and Somervell County residents who showed up at the Somervell Expo Center to volunteer. They’ve collected donations of clothes, groceries and money and passed it along to people who lost their homes and to the firefighters and paramedics working to stop the fire’s spread.
Saturday night, they served them steak dinners. The night before they prepared taco salads and homemade ice cream.
On Friday, the whole space of the center, provided by the county but staffed and run by volunteers, was packed with donations. Boxes of clothes and non-perishable groceries were stacked up under the awning out front. By Saturday, hours before the donation center was set to shut down, all that was left was a couple of tables of groceries and healthy snacks and a few racks of clothes. Everything went to families in need and to first responders, Phillips said.
LDL, a local nonprofit organization, has been involved in helping collect and distribute donations. When the center goes back to its normal functions on Sunday, that organization will pair with the Red Cross to continue meeting the needs of firefighters and those displaced by the disaster.
Wildfires raging across Texas
The Texas A&M Forest Service has responded to 205 wildfires in the last seven days and seen 22,132 acres of Texas land burned.
Since the first day of the year, Texas has seen 6,809 wildfires that have burned more than half a million acres of land.
Last week, Abbott renewed a disaster declaration that included 73 counties affected by wildfire threats. The declaration he signed Saturday added 10 more counties, including Somervell. Abbott also renewed a disaster declaration for 189 counties affected by exceptional drought conditions.
The forest service currently has 43 fire suppression aircraft in use across the state, including one “very large” DC-10 air tanker, six Fire Boss Air Tractors, six single-engine air tankers and 12 helicopters. More than 800 personnel have come from out of state with 176 pieces of equipment to assist, according to forest service information.
Little to no active fire remained in the 457-acre Possum Kingdom Lake Fire about 80 miles west of Fort Worth, according to statement from the Southern Area Blue, Type I Incident Management Team.
However, “elevated potential for fire activity is present as fuels surrounding the fire’s perimeter remain extremely dry and at an increased risk of ignition,” according to the Friday statement. “Firefighters will remain diligent as the probability of ignition remains high, as does the potential for extreme fire behavior if activity increases.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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.
