By Jordan Bickham

Staff Writer

Recently, many Texas families have witnessed more than the typical summer heat; they are experiencing the heat of wildfires.

On Sept. 5, the single worst wildfire in Texas history burned through the city of Bastrop, which is east of Austin.  The fire burned tens of thousands of acres and forced nearly 5,000 people to evacuate the area.

 In these past two weeks, Texans have been fighting a shocking 149 wildfires, which officials say have burned 1,000 homes and ravaged 34,068 acres southeast of Austin in the past two weeks alone. The fire is now 95 percent contained, but the destruction is still left.

Dry conditions and strong winds created conditions conducive for wildfires, as Texas is experiencing its worst drought since the 10-year drought of the 1940s and 50s.

According to Coppell Fire Chief Kevin Richardson, the fires were fueled by strong winds and dry grass due to the recent drought.

“The wet spring created lots of vegetative growth, then a record breaking heat wave to dry every thing out, along with drought conditions, set things for a volatile situation only needing a heat source to get started.  High winds are one of the worst enemies and act as a blow torch,” Richardson said via email.

Central Texas hasn’t received any significant rainfall this past year, which adds to the destruction caused by the wildfires.  Since this past December, wildfires have consumed 3.6 million acres of Texas land, the size of the state of Connecticut.

Firefighters continue to try to subdue the 16 mile-wide fire through Bastrop Country that destroyed about 1,000 homes.

With fires raging, fueled by strong winds and dry grass, there is little to do.  All that can really be done is to move people out of the way, protect homes, and make sure everyone is safe.

Even with the comfort of safety, people are still struggling to cope with what happened.  Not many people can comprehend a wall of fire and smoke burning down their community.

Coppell sophomore Jack Robertson has a ranch located in Comanche, close to where the wild fires hit.

“We didn’t receive any damage, but we’ve had a scare that there were wildfires just a mile away,” Robertson said.

Even though his ranch wasn’t hit, his cousin’s ranch was damage from the wildfires.

“I have a cousin who has a different ranch and they said they lost about $100,000 worth of fences and cattle,” Robertson said. “It takes years for that soil to return to where you can have cattle on it.”

The Robertson family is taking precautions to make sure this doesn’t happen to their ranch.

With the dry weather and little rainfall, wildfires are prominent, especially during the summer season.  Texas is very volatile, especially under circumstances such as these.  Others all around the country have come to help battle the wildfires and keep Texans safe.  About 12,000 individuals from all over the United States have come to donate resources and help repair damage, including citizens from Coppell.

Coppell firefighters have also been helping out to contain the fires and stop the destruction, according to Richardson.

“When out of control wildfires exceed local resources, the State Operations Center activates a statewide mutual aid plan that organizes and dispatches additional resources throughout the state,” Richardson said. “Coppell responded as part of a North Texas Task Force to the PK fires and ended up getting re-assigned as needed in other parts of the state.  We ended up with crews being gone for 12 days straight and rotated fresh firefighters every three to four days.”

Due to the fires, more than 200 Bastrop Independent School District staff and faculty have been impacted.  Many have lost homes or suffered other devastation.  Not only has it affected the district’s faculty, but it has also displaced around 450-500 students in the area.

Schools were able to reopen on Sept. 12, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been providing hotel rooms for those with nowhere to go.  Surprisingly, school attendance has only dropped about two percent compared to previous weeks.

Even though the community is getting back on its feet, they still need help.  Clothing and monetary assistance are a priority, and gift cards are being requested.  You can make monetary donations to the BISD Employee Relief Fund and the First National Bank, and clothing donations are still being received at Bastrop High School.

You can find more information on how to help the Bastrop community on the Coppell ISD website.

You can also help out by being aware of how wildfires are caused.

“The best thing to do is control potential fire sources.  We can’t change the fuel load, humidity factors, wind, etc. but we can control heat and fire sources,” Richardson said.  “Be very careful with any type of heat source such as cigarettes, grills, fireworks, etc.  The result can be devastating.”