Grass Fire Contained as Firefighters Investigate Cause

SAN ANGELO, TX — Fire officials with Wall VFD said the fire this afternoon was not a controlled burn as was reported by us earlier, and they are investigating exactly how the fire started and spread late Tuesday afternoon.

Here is how the story unfolded.

At 6:12 p.m.

What was thought to be a controlled burn grew out of control off Country Club Rd. south of San Angelo.

Three volunteer fire departments responded late Tuesday afternoon to knock down the resulting grass fire. Among them were East Concho VFD, Pecan Creek VFD, and Wall VFD.

Firefighters were observed lighting “back burns,” or small fires to contain the brush fire and to prevent it from getting out of control.

Approximate location of the fire:

Near the property, a teenaged boy approached some firefighters and demanded the volunteers not light any of the back burn near the property where his goats were grazing. “If it catches fire, my goats will burn to death!”

The goats remained safe, though. More back burns were not necessary. By 6 p.m. the fire appeared to be mostly contained.

This morning at 8:38 a.m., the Tom Green County Commissioners' Court re-instated the county-wide burn ban.

Update 10:30 p.m.

Wall AFD Assistant Chief John Manera said the landowner allows a landscaping company to dump its debris, trimmings, and wood from projects in a clearing in the field off Country Club Rd. in the county. For a currently unknown reason, the debris sparked into a fire and with the wind, it began to spread.

Volunteer fire departments responded quick enough to surround the flaming debris on all four sides and burn off fuel to prevent the fire from spreading. They are calling the fire contained as of earlier this evening.

The landowner is assisting the volunteers in watching the flames as it smolders and eventually, their hope is, it will extinguish itself overnight.

Manera said there is an investigation ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.