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Fire near Fort Davis claims 20,000 acres
A fire started Wednesday afternoon by a railroad company welder had spread over 20,000 acres in Presidio and Jeff Davis counties and continued to flare up Thursday in various hot spots. The area affected covers much of the triangle formed by Marfa to the southwest, Fort Davis to the northeast and State Hwy. 166 to the north/northwest. The worst - or most dangerous - hot spots were along Hwy. 166 about 15 miles west of Fort Davis, near the historic Bloys Camp. Hundreds of firefighters using planes, road graders and every other conceivable form of firefighting equipment managed Thursday afternoon to stop the fire from overrunning Bloys Camp - just barely. Shifting winds, fire breaks, graded areas and fire retardant on overlooking mountains stopped the fire just short of the historic camp. As of late Thursday afternoon, 60 homes (75 structures) had been threatened at one time or another in the camp area. Since 1890 the Bloys Camp Meeting (or Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting) has met annually at Skillman's Grove just off Hwy. 166. It comes alive for only five days of the year, usually from the second Tuesday of August to the following Sunday. All religious denominations are welcomed, but the event is sponsored by the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and Disciples of Christ, each of which participates in the five-day meeting. The camp meetings were begun in 1890 by William Benjamin Bloys, a Presbyterian home missionary serving in Fort Davis. Thursday afternoon, a hot spot flared a couple of miles east of Bloys Camp just 100 yards or so off of Hwy. 166. Smoke was almost suffocating for the 100 or so firefighters in the area. Late in the afternoon, coordinators were calling in help from other areas as they fought to keep the fire from jumping the highway and heading north toward Fort Davis, Davis Mountains State Park and surrounding housing developments. Winds were gusting to 30 miles per hour and temperatures were close to 100 degrees. The Texas Forest Service said the fire is burning in rough terrain in heavy juniper, mesquite, oak and grass. In addition to the Bloys Camp, the fire threatened the Crows Nest and Apache Pines communities and numerous wind turbines. Wednesday, the fire initially burned a path 12 miles long and more than two miles wide in less than six hours. Four heavy air tankers and three helicopters worked the fire Wednesday afternoon. More were brought in Thursday, along with two "hot shot" crews from New Mexico. Firefighters said extreme winds and low humidity were expected to continue causing problems Thursday night and Friday. Up to now, the Big Bend area has been suffering through a rough year. Except for isolated spots, most of the area has received less than an inch of rain. Last summer's rainy season was one of the wetter ones in recent years, which brought a lot of growth in Big Bend pastures. However, all that growth is now bone dry. So, dry vegetation can light up if "just look at it wrong," said one local rancher Thursday afternoon. Fire near Fort Davis claims 20,000 acres A fire started Wednesday afternoon by a railroad company welder had spread over 20,000 acres in Presidio and Jeff Davis counties and continued to flare up Thursday in various hot spots. The latest new adults from AHS More than 2,000 family members and friends gathered at Gallego Center last week to give Alpine High School's 2008 graduating class a rousing sendoff. Quick action sought on fire station issue After a sometimes heated discussion, Alpine City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to immediately appoint a committee to work quickly with Brewster County to finalize an agreement for a new fire station. Special to the Avalanche Richard Villanueva was misidentified as Richard Valenzuela in a photo caption on Page A9 of the June 5 edition. The Avalanche regrets the error. |
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