Published: July 29, 2009 09:49 pm      

Highway 19 fire ravages 27 acres

A plume of heavy smoke cast a dark shadow over a stretch of state Highway 19 Wednesday afternoon as yet another forest fire raged through drought-ravaged Walker County.

At around 2:30 p.m., Walker County firefighters began responding to a report of a fire on Julia Justice Road off SH 19 just a few miles southwest of Riverside. High winds and low humidity pushed the fire forward, and units from all over Walker County began responding to contain the blaze.

According to Huntsville Fire Chief Tom Grisham, five different fire departments including, Huntsville, Riverside, Pine Prairie, Thomas Lake Road and Dodge, responded to the fire, along with three bulldozers and several officials from the Texas Forest Service.

Grisham said the fire likely began near a home on Julia Justice Road, and quickly spread to the surrounding forest. As the fire’s power built, it began “crowning,” reaching fuel at the tops of trees, causing it spread even faster.

The speed and power of the blaze caused the fire to overtake four structures before fire crews could save them. According to Grisham, two abandoned homes, a barn, and a mobile home that may or may not have been occupied were completely destroyed.

“They were in front of the head of the fire, so with the wind conditions like they are, there’s no way that we can fight any kind of structure fires when we’re in the forest like that,” Grisham said.

The fire continued to grow, jumping over O’Bannon Road into another patch of property, and eventually reaching the edge of SH 19’s southbound lanes. Riverside firefighters and Walker County Sheriff’s deputies stopped traffic in the lanes as firefighters rushed to the area to control the blaze even as it spread into the median. Several other fire units worked quickly to stop the spread of the fire to nearby structures, including homes and businesses at the edge of the highway.

“Basically our theory for the fire service is that we fight in the black, and that means that we get in an area that’s already burnt, and that’s the safest place to fight the fire,” Grisham said. “We’re not trained to get out into the front of the fire and attempt to make a stand, and that’s a very unsafe thing to do for a firefighter.”

As the blaze was beaten back into its original area, forest service dozers began to carve out fire lines, sections of raised dirt, around the fire, in an attempt to contain it by depriving it of fuel. Meanwhile, in the hottest part of the fire, the forest service employed a helicopter with a dump tank to attack from above.

Just before 7 p.m., more than four hours after the fire began, Walker County dispatch terminated command in the area, signaling the end of a powerful fire and a blistering day for local firefighters.

According to Grisham, the exact cause of the fire is still unknown, but a person of interest is being questioned by Walker County Sheriff’s Office investigators and forest service arson specialist.

The fire consumed approximately 27 acres.