Another wildfire in Burnet County
A look at the firefighting efforts of an assisting water-drop helicopter as the blaze raged on at around 7 p.m. on Monday. Photo contributed by Burnet County Emergency Management Coordinator Ed Hashbarger
An 20-acre fire sparked on the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 17, just north of Burnet, prompting another multi-day firefighting effort from county and state emergency agencies.
According to Burnet County Emergency Management Coordinator Ed Hashbarger, the fire broke out late Monday afternoon near CR 110 and Threadgill Ranch Road, about 5 miles northwest of downtown Burnet.
The Texas A&M Forest Service, confirmed by Hashbarger, showed the fire was roughly 14 acres and 83 percent contained at around noon on Tuesday.
As of this article’s publication, the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
By 7 p.m. on Monday, the blaze, dubbed the Baker Fire, had grown to roughly 20 acres in size and was reportedly 10 percent contained. Around that time, EMC Hashbarger said that reverse 911 calls were employed to warn nearby residents to evacuate the area.
With the help of aviation-assisted water drops and intrastate fire teams, local personnel continued fighting the fire into the morning of Tuesday.
According to Hashbarger, since the start of August, the Highland Lakes area has experienced significant dry and windy weather, setting ideal conditions for wildfires to ignite and spread. In the last two and a half weeks, conditions have either directly caused or reinforced several fires. The burn ban in both Burnet and Llano counties remains on.
“Please adhere to the burn ban,” Hashbarger said last week. “Stay weather aware. Know that your area is at high risk.”
Burnet County has been exceptionally dry, registering on Tuesday in the third-worst drought category of the Keetch-Byram Drought Index. The KBDI is used by the county to determine how dry the area is on a scale of 0-800, with Burnet County registering on average at 582. One week ago, it sat at 525.