Published: June 30, 2008 09:19 am         

Fighters of flames keep watch over Palo Pinto-area fire locale

Area firefighters kept busy with other conflagarations as fire threat increases across region.

By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com

PALO PINTO – Palo Pinto volunteer firefighters are patrolling the site of Thursday’s fire for a few days to check hot spots and prevent flare-ups, reported fire officials.

A welder sparked the fire that prompted an evacuation of some Palo Pinto residents, officials said. Palo Pinto Volunteer Fire Department Chief Perry Faubion estimated they evacuated 25 to 30 people from the south end of the community.

According to Palo Pinto County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers, the fire was called in at 1:53 p.m. and located south of U.S. Highway 180 and east of Farm-to-Market Road 4. Firefighters from Palo Pinto, Mineral Wells, Lone Camp and Santo responded to the scene along with members of the Texas Forest Service. The fire chief described the terrain as “mostly wooded with a lot of cedars and heavy brush.”

Faubion said they used a number of firefighting techniques to battle the flames including water drops from TFS helicopters, flame retardant drops from a TFS fixed-wing aircraft, brush trucks and bulldozers that created fire lines.

When the fire started towards Palo Pinto, residents were evacuated. Faubion explained that if the fire had gotten past the firefighters, there wasn’t anything to stop it before it reached the homes.

Although “most of Palo Pinto was threatened,” Faubion said they didn’t lose any buildings or homes to fire. An estimated 65 acres burned with no injuries reported.

Palo Pinto resident Kara Murphy’s home was used as the command station.

“It got pretty crazy,” Murphy recalled. While her neighbors to the south were evacuated, her family took some precautions themselves, including moving their horse. Her husband, Sonny Murphy, assisted the firefighters with his bulldozer, she said.

“Being an ex-volunteer firefighter, it was very scary for a while because I knew the terrain. It’s very rugged out there. … It was very unnerving that something that out-of-control is near your home,” Kara Murphy said.

Faubion said they cleared the scene at 12:30 a.m. Friday but “we’ll probably spend the next two to three days checking hot spots.”

Still nervous on Friday about the possibility of flare-ups, Murphy said she’s afraid of what could happen with the Fourth of July weekend approaching.

“It is really scary with the Fourth of July coming up, as dry as we are,” she said. “I’d feel a lot better with a full-fledged burn ban. It might be time for the commissioners court to have a little talk about this.”

The Palo Pinto fire wasn’t the only blaze firefighters faced Thursday as a number of smaller conflagrations cropped up around Mineral Wells.

Shortly before Mineral Wells firefighters assisted Palo Pinto, a grassfire was called in at 1:30 p.m. at the intersection of Ellis White Road and Farm-to-Market Road 1821 near a fireworks stand, officials reported.

Mineral Wells Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steve Perdue explained a citation was issued to the fireworks stand’s operator for shooting fireworks too close to a fireworks stand. He said the law states fireworks cannot be shot less than 100 feet from a fireworks stand and the operator was firing approximately 30 feet from his business.

While a number of volunteer firefighters were in Palo Pinto, more Mineral Wells volunteers were toned out for a small grassfire on Farm-to-Market Road 2256 that officials believe was ignited by fireworks. Bystanders reportedly had the fire mostly extinguished by the time firefighters arrived on the scene.

A dumpster ignited Thursday evening at a cabinet shop in the 2600 block of U.S. Highway 281 South, officials reported.

The cause, Perdue said, was from spontaneous combustion after rags used with linseed oil were thrown into the dumpster. He explained that the combination of an enclosed area, a buildup of heat and a substance in the linseed oil that has a fairly low flash point caused the fire.

They were able to use water to quickly extinguish the flames, he said.

At approximately 10:30 p.m. the same night, firefighters were summoned to a roadside grassfire on U.S. 281 North, approximately one-half mile north of FM1821 that officials believe was started by fireworks.

“It was on the side of the road and got off in a pasture. This thing was moving,” Perdue recalled. With this fire, he said what was scary was that the “backing fire was moving almost as fast as the head fire and that’s because of the dry conditions.”

A head fire is the front of the fire that moves in the direction of the wind, while the backing fire moves much slower and into the wind, he explained.

The fire burned about an acre.

Palo Pinto County is currently on a burn ban that prevents residents from burning trash or brush piles but doesn’t ban or restrict fireworks usage or welding.

Inside the Mineral Wells city limits, a city ordinance bans residents from shooting all types of fireworks including sparklers, firecrackers, rockets, torpedoes and roman candles, among other things. The ordinance also states people inside city limits cannot give away, sell or “have in possession with intent or discharge or cause to discharge” fireworks. According to the ordinance, anyone who violates the ordinance can face a fine not exceeding $2,000.

The City of Gordon also has an ordinance in place that prohibits the sale or shooting of fireworks within city limits. Similarly, fireworks are prohibited from being discharged in the city limits of Strawn. In Graford, city officials said the selling of fireworks in the city limits is prohibited but not discharging them.