Firefighters extinguish blaze that threatens homes, businesses and oil & gas properties in Giddings

3/6/09  Crews from the Giddings Volunteer Fire Department, the Texas Forest Service and [even] the State of Wisconsin worked Friday to extinguish a blaze that threatened homes, businesses and oil & gas properties east of Walmart on the Davis property in Giddings.

Firefighters arrived to find that an iron worker using a cutting torch in the area had caused the accidental blaze. Officials said that the man stated that he was using metal working equipment and when he looked up, he realized that the parched field  was burning. The grassy area just north of his location was on fire and 911 was alerted.

Local firefighters and workers from the Texas Forest Service were called to the scene to help manage the blaze. Another crew, that was in the area due to the recent fire in Bastrop, responded to the call. The crew, from Wisconsin, was sent to Texas in late February due to the extreme drought conditions. This crew helped to contain the Bastrop fire and was available when the Giddings call came in Friday afternoon.

The fire was completely contained within a few hours as the group of firemen doused the growing flames and crews used heavy equipment to cut ruts in the soil to construct an informal barrier around the flames. Oil and gas pipelines, an oil pumping unit and oil tanks were of concern to the crews because of the added risks involved - both above and below the ground.

Once the initial burst of flames was knocked out, crews managed to extinguish all of the flare-ups and keep things under control even though the south wind was whipping up to 15 miles per hour. Crews used GPS units to compute the estimated size of the fire and stated that between 8-10 acres had been affected.

Before the fire broke out the property had been littered with mounds of junk, which made fighting the fire more difficult for responders. Crews were forced to saturate numerous brush and junk piles, multiple times, in their effort to subdue the blaze. At least two structures were entirely  consumed by the wind driven flames which traveled northward, toward Walmart Plaza and more populated areas. A small house and a travel trailer were completely destroyed during the incident which is one of dozens of fires in the area within the year.