• Allison Miles •
• Originally published January 20, 2009 at 11:37 p.m., updated January 20, 2009 at 11:37 p.m.

Victoria firefighters battled a second day of grass fires as two fires consumed a total of about 400 acres on Tuesday, said Battalion Chief Tracy Fox. No residents were injured or structures damaged.

Dorie Walton was watching a movie at her Hidden Valley home Tuesday, enjoying a day off from school, when her brother, Cole Walton, glanced out the window.

"He said, 'Oh wow,'" the Goliad High School sophomore said. "I thought it was probably just doves because we get a lot of them out here, but when I looked out, all you saw was smoke."

The field behind their home was on fire, with 20 or 30 hay bales up in smoke, said Debra Walton, Dorie's mother.

"It was blazing," she said of the fire - the third in that field in five years. "And scary. Our backyard is this field."

The fire near the Walton's home on Crouch Road started around 1 p.m., scorching 150 to 200 acres before firefighters extinguished it. At one time, the fire may have been a mile wide, Fox said.

As the Crouch Road fire blazed, another fire off U.S. Highway 59 kept other firefighters busy.

Sparks from a mechanical problem on a tractor trailer set grass ablaze off U.S. Highway 59 near Telferner. This fire also burned about 200 acres before being extinguished.

Firefighters evacuated some residents in homes on County Road and Hambleton Road, Fox said.

No residents or structures were harmed in the fire.

Fox said dry weather, high winds and low humidity contributed to Monday and Tuesday's fires.

Low humidity is expected to stay in the area through Wednesday, according to a special weather bulletin from the National Weather Service.

"Residents across all of southeast Texas are urged to take the necessary precautions to prevent any fires," the bulletin reported. "Report wild fires to the nearest fire department or law enforcement office."

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