UPDATE – FIRE DEPARTMENTS BATTLE LOCAL GRASS FIRES

  

Update 12:45 PM Tuesday:

The Brenham and Chappell Hill Fire Departments are currently responding to a grass fire in the 4700 Block of Nicholson Lake road south of Chappell Hill. The fire is reported to be about 10 to 12 acres in size and began when a controlled burn got out of hand.

Earlier today (Tuesday) the Burton fire department was called out to the10800 block of Old Mill Creek Road. A brush and grass fire occurred there Monday and burned approximately 20 acres. Some of the brush involved in the fire Monday had reignited.

Washington County Commissioners after their meeting Tuesday advised residents to be extremely careful with outdoor burning as the grass and vegetation is extremely dry.

From Tuesday morning:

Five fire departments worked together to battle a large grass fire near Burton.

The fire broke out Monday afternoon, south of Highway 290, in a field in the 10800 block of Old Mill Creek Road.

The Burton Fire Department was dispatched to the scene along with departments from Berlin, Latium, Carmine and Brenham.

Brenham’s UTV was utilized in the tree line to extinguish hot spots.  Brenham was on scene approximately two and half hours.

Over 20 acres of burned in the blaze.

In a related note: The Washington County Commissioners have taken notice of the current rash of grass fires in the county.

Commissioners, at their meeting Tuesday, urged citizens to use the utmost caution in any controlled burns.

There is no current burn ban in place, but Commissioners say they will keep apprised of the situation.

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3 Comments

  1. A burn ban was asked to be put in place by several fire departments however the commissioners and county judge, (who do not respond to fires) decided against it. What sense does this make? Wouldn’t you think that they would listen to the departments that end up sending hours on these scenes and away from their jobs and families? We seriously need a change in our county government ASAP!

    1. Part of the problem is even if the county were to put on a burn ban, there are no repercussions if you violate the burn ban… the sheriffs office does not issue citations, then the FD’s still have to run and extinguish the illegal burns… so as of now the county burn ban is a joke and it just makes the fire dept’s have a larger call volume…

    2. Here is a challenge. Watch the Texas burn ban map from now on:

      http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu/TexasBurnBans/

      I have been watching trends the last few years. It takes the entire state burn ban map turning red surrounding Washington county before our county will instate one. This goes on in reverse order when it is lifted. If you think I am making this up, watch what happens next time. How can our “leaders” be ignoring the volunteer fire dept chiefs when they are requesting burn bans? I don’t get it. The attitude is “I ain’t do’in it till everybody else does it”.

      We simply don’t have leadership in our county government. We have followers who cannot make simple decisions such as instating or removing burn bans, even when people “in the know” (i.e. the fire chiefs) are advising them to do so.

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