1 Series of fires blaze across Hays County
Dry summer months led to a series of fires throughout Dripping Springs and beyond this year, burning over 1,500 acres, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Gatlin Creek Fire
The series began with the Gatlin Creek Fire, commonly referred to as the Storm Ranch wildfire. The fire began on the Storm Ranch property near Gatlin Creek Road and Mt. Olive School Road, eight miles southeast of Dripping Springs, around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, July 6. The fire burned approximately 357 acres, according to an estimate from the Texas A&M Forest Service.
“We are working an active brush fire at the 2500 block of Gatlin Creek Road,” North Hays County Fire Rescue posted on Facebook at 3:27 p.m. “Please avoid the area to allow emergency personnel to access safely.”
The fire spread at a moderate speed from 75 acres (as of 5 p.m. Wednesday) to 100 acres around 7 p.m., according to the Hays County Office of Emergency Management and the Texas A&M Forest Service.
An emergency phone notification was sent out around 5 p.m., evacuating 10 houses near the Storm Ranch property.
A temporary evacuation shelter was established at Dripping Springs Ranch Park and Event Center for both people and animals needing shelter (with the exception of poultry).
By 8:30 p.m., the fire had burned through approximately 325 acres and was 20% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Forward motion of the fire stopped around this time, according to officials, and those evacuated from their homes were free to return.
Crews from the North Hays County Fire Rescue and the Wimberley Fire Department, in conjunction with the Texas A&M Forest Service, Travis County STAR Flight and other regional agencies, utilized ground and air resources to stop the blaze. These included a large air tanker, single engine air tankers and a type-one large helicopter, according to the Incident Information System.
“An important thing to note is all of the partnerships we have helping us, both in Hays County and outside of it,” said Fire Chief Scott Collard with the North Hays County Fire Rescue.
“We had help from Travis, Comal and Blanco Counties coming in to help our firefighting force and helping to take care of our firefighters.”
“The way to be successful in managing larger events like this is through the help of your neighbors,” Collard continued. “Likewise, we had a huge outpouring of community members offering support and bringing water, tractors and all kinds of stuff to mitigate the fire. It takes a village to keep people safe.”
With crews remaining on scene overnight, the fire was brought to 70% containment as of 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 7.
“There’s lines around all of the fire with bulldozers, but they’re not strengthened to the point where it’s 100% going to prevent the spread of that fire,” Collard said on June 7. “We spent all night strengthening those lines by putting out any fires nearby, and that’s what they’re going to be working on all day today is strengthening those containment lines.
But the fire is going to burn for quite a while, and a lot of large trees were lost.”
Collard said there was concern that the area’s persistent, hot and dry conditions would keep the fire burning for longer.
“The strong winds combined with low humidity basically turns our landscape into a tinderbox,” he explained. “A lot of trees, foliage and grass are dead because of the drought.
We’re anticipating winds up to 30-35 miles an hour, so trees are going to be subject to igniting themselves.”
The Gatlin Creek Fire reached 100% containment on Saturday, July 9, according to Hays County Fire Marshal Mark Wobus.
Smoke Rider Fire
Less than a month after the Gatlin Creek Fire, the Smoke Rider Fire burned through over 1,210 acres near the Hays-Blanco County line, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The fire began in the early afternoon of Tuesday, August 2, moving northwest towards U.S. Highway 290. By the end of the day, its damage spanned over 800 acres. The fire reached 100% containment on Monday, August 8 — but not before it had burned down seven homes and an RV. The Texas A&M Forest Service worked in conjunction with local agencies, responding with ground crews, firefighters and aircraft to put out the blaze.
The cause of the burn is still under investigation, according to the Incident Information System.
'Hays County has deployed our Wildland Task Force to assist Blanco County,” North Hays County Fire Rescue Chief Scott Collard said on Tuesday. “The fire is moving rapidly and threatening multiple properties and structures.
Ranch Road 165 is closed at Farm-to-Market 2325 and at U.S. Highway 290.'
U.S. Highway 290 was also shut down at FM 3232. A temporary evacuation center was set up at the Blanco United Methodist Church. Dripping Springs Ranch Park housed horses displaced by the fire, while additional local businesses and shelters took in other displaced animals.
While the Dripping Springs and Blanco communities were quick to help, the disastrous impacts of the fire were traumatizing for its victims.
“I sat on the side of the road for three hours just watching helicopters fly overhead,” said resident Emily Hill. “I watched big billows of black smoke come up every time it hit a house… it was traumatizing.”
Hill lived in one of the homes destroyed by the fire, which displaced her, her two children, and her parents. Her sister and brother-in-law lived in an RV on the property, which was also destroyed.
“I was at work in Austin… my dad and kids noticed smoke coming from east of the hill on our side,” she described. “My dad went down to my sister and brother-in-law in the RV and the cops were already evacuating them. There was zero reflex time — it was get out and move now; there was no warning.”
By the time Hill left work and drove to meet her evacuated family — a commute about 20 minutes long — there was no access to her home. With the swift and unexpected nature of the evacuation, two dogs, two cats and two guinea pigs had been left behind and could not be retrieved.
All are presumed to have died in the fire.
“My family is safe, stuff is just stuff, but the pets… they were family too,” Hill said through tears.
“There should be some sort of system like tornado warnings: ‘get cover now.’
Maybe in the future, that could give people heads up to understand the severity of the situation.”
Hill and the remainder of her family have been separated from each other since the fire, each staying in what lodging they could find while her children stay with family in Lockhart.
“Fortunately, I’d already registered my kids in Dripping Springs [ISD] for this year, but you need documents for everything.
We don’t have birth certificates, social security cards… we’re basically back to square one,” Hill said. “My youngest doesn’t really understand, so she’s been higher in spirit, but it definitely affected the mental health of my oldest… she lost her computer, all her stuff for school.”
Hill said she is thankful for all of the support she and her family have received from the Dripping Springs community, but she said she dreads the long process that it will take to rebuild not only a life but also a home.
“It’s been awesome to see the community out there, pushing to try and raise some money,” she said. “It’s just going to take a lot of time.”
Dripping Springs residents and local businesses organized multiple relief and fundraising efforts for the Storm Rider Fire. These include Burgers and Bands, a fundraiser for fire victims at Homespun Kitchen and Bar. Meanwhile, other businesses, such as 12 Fox Brewing, offered free food and drinks to first responders.
Hermosa Fire
The day after the Smoke Rider Fire, a wildfire broke out on the edge of the Wimberley Valley, burning an estimated 44 acres over five days before being contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Named the Hermosa Fire, it started at around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 3 in the back of the River Mountain Ranch subdivision. According to officials, the fire started at the site of new home construction near a pool that was being built at 720 Bluff View Drive.
“When we first got there, there was a lot of smoke and a lot of fire down by the pool going through the trees and into the side of a canyon,” Wimberley Fire Chief Carroll Czichos said.
“It just took off from there.” Being in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the history of the state, prospects were not good when the fire first started.
“The first couple of hours, I was trying to figure out how many houses we were going to lose,” Czichos said. There were 14 primary home structures threatened. Only one received any damage.
There were many complicating factors to the fire fight, including treacherous terrain and high temperatures. One of these, according to Czichos, was that Wimberley Fire and Rescue spent 14 hours the day before helping fight the Smoke Rider Fire.
In the beginning, it was largely the Wimberley, North Hays and South Hays fire departments that were fighting the fire.
Dozens of fire departments and state and federal assistance showed up throughout the duration of the fire, including San Marcos, Buda, Kyle, the Texas A&M Forest Service and the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System.
But with the Hermosa Fire being the fourth to burn over 40 acres in Hays County in the span of a month, local emergency teams were being stretched thin.
On Tuesday, July 27, an estimated 70-acre fire burned through part of Buda near the Coves of Cimarron neighborhood.
The grass fire started when a cattle trailer backed into a guide wire to a telephone pole, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
In an emailed letter on Aug. 4, Hays County Commissioner Walt Smith, Precinct 4, requested a county-wide disaster designation.
“A rash of fires have beset Hays County and taxed our resources as well as those of our emergency service districts, citizens and partner municipalities,” he wrote. “From providing storage for displaced animals to the depletion of manpower and supplies to our first responders, the demands on the county and our partnering agencies and municipalities have quickly depleted the ability to respond and stretched our resources to their fullest.
It's for these reasons… I request you act immediately and declare a county-wide state of emergency for drought and wildfire. This action would allow our partners to apply for, and hopefully receive, additional funding, aid, and resources from governmental entities outside the county for which they otherwise may not qualify.”
No state of emergency was declared in Hays County.
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra did not respond to a request for comment.
