Near Blum. 4 air tractors and a Blackhawk scooping from Lake Whitney now.

man those cedars explode

It's only going to get worse with the next 2 weeks forecast.

Yep. This time of year I’m keeping an eye to the south.

Not good. Hopefully they are able to get it contained tonight.

Gonna burn for days. Hope they can save the houses.

The whole town of Blum may have to be evacuated.

Not good

5 homes burned 250 acres burning

Just horrible.

Thank goodness is not very windy and come on rain

I own rural property,133 acres. My biggest fear is a brush fire that could make the place worthless.

It could improve it.

Nope JG. Rocks don’t burn

But, I understand what you are saying. About 35+ years ago, a neighbor let a fire get out of hand on a really windy day. It hit my place, Burnt or scorched my oaks and kept going. It didn’t have a chance to really spread out. The cedars that it hit were dead or useless. Luckily, it was winter so all of the leaves had fallen. Also, the wind was strong enough to let the fire blow through my place. When Spring came most of the bigger oaks came out ok.

When I first got there, the burnt area looked terrible. But, within 5 years, everything was ok.

I was once a fireman. I went to the fire hall and talked to some of the old hands. The old hands said that, in a 40 to 50 mph winter wind, they doubted that there would be much of a problem. They were right. But, had it been a much lighter wind, I would have needed a dozer to do clean up..

Wonder how the land looks like right now in N Texas from Sunset to ST Jo from the deadly fire in April 2009. That was a lot of big hardwood trees mainly Post Oak that were lost.

I’ve lost old oaks to fire. No thanks.

The longer you put off a major fire the greater the fire will be when it finally happens. We've interfered with nature in that regard. People simply need to learn how to use construction techniques for houses that won't burn.

I can't think of a single time a fire has gone through and cleared out all the Cedars and Mesquites where it did not improve the land.

All that mussing aside I hope no one gets hurt from this fire.

A fire in late summer or fall can be bad. There will be several months of no vegetation, and the spring rains will cause erosion in a lot of areas. The fire we had in 2009 in the Western part of the county did good on some places, others just had the briars come back with a vengence.

You're right.

And California is the world's worst about putting out every fire.

Yep.

Read where they think they will have it out by the 31st

The king air was up for about 3 hours today and 4 air tractors on floats went back to mineral wells around 7. Is there any new news on containment?

30% contained and the 5 homes lost was bad Intel. No homes lost.

No homes lost, just a couple outbuildings. The Texas Forest Service did lose one dozer haul truck that burned.

40% containment today. The TX Forest Service still has about 3 dozen personnel, 3 dozers, 7 engines and a couple of Texas National Guard Blackhawks working it today and for the next several days.

Prayers for the Firefighters..