Fire danger
VFDs battle wildfire, save residences from burning
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

Newsboy photo/Charles Kerr AN AREA FIREFIGHTER surveys Friday's large grassfire which burned more than 80 acres in Jasper County.

A whipping wind that kept changing course was the contributing factor to a grass fire that burned more than 80 acres on the east side of Jasper, according to fire chief Garry Lamoreaux of the Jasper Volunteer Fire Department.

Lamoreaux said units from Jasper, East End, Tri-Community, Roganville and the Angelina River Volunteer Fire Departments all responded to the fire, which started as an out-of-control trash fire Friday afternoon, Feb. 8.

Kirbyville sent units to remain on station in Jasper in case of any other fires in the city.

"It was not a big fire, but the wind kept changing," Lamoreaux said. "You have to fight a grass fire from its head, and every time we thought we had it, the wind changed and we had to chase it."

The biggest concern was several residences in the area. During the course of the long afternoon, fire trucks scrambled as the fire shifted to be in place if any of the homes were threatened.

The fire burned for several hours in the area between Steer Stadium road and 1408. Bulldozers cut a fire line, and setting a backfire line finally contained the blaze.

This same time last year Jasper firemen were responding to several grass fires and woods fires each week, accidentally started by people burning trash, according to Jasper Fire Marshal Stephen Williamson.

"Common sense ought to tell you that with windy conditions, now is not the time to light a fire," Williamson said then, but it's the season to remind people again.

"With cool mornings followed by warm afternoon winds, the grass and brush dries out quicker than when there is a constant temperature," Williamson said.

The fire marshal requires that a controlled burn, trash or otherwise, must be watched the entire time it burns by someone who has a means to suppress the fire, like a garden hose with the water turned on.

Williamson defines "the entire time" as being until the embers are out, "until you could put you bare finder into the ashes and not get burned."