The persistent drought has caused the fire risk to increase to unsafe levels.
That's why Tuesday the Denton County Commissioner's Court issued a burn ban.
“Prevention of potential wildland fires is essential to the safety of county residents. Wildfires can be devastating and difficult on everyone, especially farmers and ranchers; wildfires can destroy not only lives and property, but livelihoods as well,” County Judge Andy Eads said in a county release. “With everyone’s help we can make our communities a safer place to live and enjoy life.”
Denton County issued the statement about the burn ban on Tuesday and in it, it said Eads, 'in the interest of fire safety and fire prevention, is asking for the cooperation of all Denton County residents with respect to outdoor burning.'
'Denton County is experiencing dry weather with little to no relief anticipated in the near future and is currently classified to be in moderate drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor Map,' the release said. 'The county has seen a slight increase in frequency of wildfires.'
The ban is open-ended, the county said, 'until drought conditions are alleviated.'
In addition to banning outdoor burning outright, the burn bans restrict certain high-fire-risk activities, such as outdoor hot work like welding and cutting torch use as well as the use of 'certain combustible materials,' the release said. Violating the ban can result in a class C misdemeanor with an accompanying fine of up to $500.
Denton County Chief Fire Marshal Brad Sebastian gave suggestions for decreasing the fire risk.
“Residents should take measures to protect their home by removing unwanted combustible debris and vegetation away from their homes and be sure to keep water hoses ready and accessible in the event a small fire starts,” Sebastian said. “Always call 911 early to notify your fire department of any fire to assure a faster response and that complete extinguishment has occurred.”
Grayson County and Cooke County are also under active burn ban orders.
The Aubrey Fire Department has faced multiple fire calls that highlighted the added danger the drought causes.
'We're in a really unique situation currently, weather-wise, where we have a really low relative humidity, temperatures are high and this has been sustained for several days,' AFD Chief Eric Schlotter said. 'When you have that, things begin to really dry out, and the threshold for what it takes to start a fire just gets lower and lower and lower, so we're seeing fires now that normally, in other months of the year when things are wet and the humidity is higher, there would be no sustained fire.
'... Once they do start, we're seeing very extreme fire behavior, again, because of the dryness, so it's spreading faster, getting hotter and starting easier.'
On Monday afternoon, a lawnmower that got hot turned into a grass fire in Krugerville.
On Tuesday evening, a structure fire near Aubrey High School resulted in a total loss and a watch that extended into Wednesday, as there was 'a rekindle' that morning, Schlotter said.
The heightened danger means all should be cautious about the risk of a fire.
'Where generally a spark wouldn't necessarily start a fire, they're starting fires now,' Schlotter said.
The heat also adds to the danger because of the added physical strain for the firefighters.
'We can't work as long without rest,' he said.
He added that two firefighters sustained minor injuries while responding to the Tuesday fire.
To the north, the Tioga Volunteer Fire Department, too, has tackled multiple recent fires.
One, which burned on Aug. 20 when a truck and a woodchipper attached to it caught the grass near the intersection of U.S. 377 and Stirrup Road on fire, included explosions in the truck.
'Tioga's finest fire department came out and extinguished the fire,' Tioga Police Department Chief Curtis Macomb said.
Although they had multiple departments, including Pilot Point and Gunter, that responded as mutual aid, it was the Tioga department that dowsed the fire.
He spoke with appreciation for the dedication of the all-volunteer department that strives to keep the city safe.
'Some of them spend the night here and some of them do a full shift and just hang out at the fire station in case something happens,' Macomb said. '...Volunteer fire departments— they don't get a lot of money; they don't get a lot of money from the city. They have to depend on donations and fundraisers.'
As of Wednesday, the Aubrey and Pilot Point Fire departments had sent personnel to respond to the Ross Fire near Palo Pinto.
'The reason that Denton County is sending resources in a mutual aid fashion is, I think, the whole system's kind of taxed at the moment,' Schlotter said. 'There's so many fires in other areas of the state that everybody's helping out. That's the basis of our operation. That's the fail safe, is that we all help each other. No one department anywhere has enough resources to handle their worst day. We all pitch in and help one another.'
