ATASCOSA COUNTY, Texas – A fire that destroyed four homes in Atascosa County Thursday afternoon happened just a couple of blocks from the scene of another destructive fire last year.
Fire crews got the call about the latest fire after 2 p.m., then scrambled to Way Cross Road, near Old Pleasanton Road.
There they found a huge fireball involving multiple structures on what appears to be one parcel of land.
“A lot of black smoke first, and it was just billowing,” said Ivy Nichols, who lives on the street directly behind the homes that burned. “Even my neighbors were calling me.”
Nichols said she kept a close watch on the flames, which were being stirred up and carried by strong winds. Fire crews, meanwhile, began what would be an hours-long battle against the fire.
Ellis Tracy, who lives across the road, worried the fire might also spread to his home.
He said the flames ignited a brush pile in his backyard.
“When all the leaves on the roof of my shop caught on fire, I was pretty concerned because my shop is right close to the house,” he said.
Tracy said he scaled a ladder to put out the flames on the roof of his backyard shed while firefighters took care of the fire in the brush pile.
Even after it was out, though, he had trouble getting a good night’s sleep.
“I came back out, I don’t know, about 12 (a.m.), 12:30, and then I woke up again about 3,” he said. “I was looking because I was worried.”
The fear among the neighbors is understandable.
In March of last year, the area experienced a similar situation when a grass fire broke out a couple of streets over on Big Leaf Road, also causing damage to homes and other property.
Even now, a year later, signs of that fire are visible.
Several trees have burn marks on them, and there are empty lots where some of the burned homes had been.
“I told my friend here, I says, ‘This is getting where we’re not going to have a neighborhood left because there are always fires out here,’” Nichols said. “It’s so dry out there.”
While they understand all too well the damage that fire can do, people in the area are still wondering exactly how this latest grass fire started.
As of Friday afternoon, fire investigators still had not released the exact cause of it.
Calls and emails sent to the Atascosa County Fire Marshal’s Office and the Ata-Bexar County Fire Line were unanswered.
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