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PLACEDO – Kenneth Johnson saw smoke at the 3X Ranch and alerted the landowner’s family.
Johnson, from Wood Hi, went to check on his cattle around 1 p.m. on Saturday and a grass fire had already started a few miles north of Placedo off Farm-to-Market Road 616.
Carolyn Strnadel from Inez drove up to her family’s 3X Ranch, HK Ranch and Koontz Ranch to see several spots of fire and smoke along and north of the railroad tracks. Her family’s ranches comprise about 18,000 acres between Placedo and Inez – all with several oil and gas wells, she said.
She checked all the homes and cattle and watched firefighters attack the blazes from all sides.
Firefighters fought three separate grass fires, which appeared to start just off the tracks by a passing train, battalion chief Tracy Fox with the Victoria Fire Department said. Either sparks or heat could have started it because the grass was dry and overgrown, he said.
Lone Tree, Inez, Placedo, Seadrift and Port Lavaca fire departments responded by 4:30 p.m. with several brush trucks and tankers, Fox said. Because they couldn’t reach the heart of the fires, they let the fire burn to the ranch roads and set up stations to fight them there.
The Victoria County Sheriff’s Department requested a helicopter for aerial reconnaissance – to see where the fire was and its extent, Fox said.
No one was injured and no property was damaged, Fox said.
Train traffic was stopped while firefighters worked for hours.
Trains set off fires every now and then, Strnadel said, watching the line of smoke down the tracks.
“This is the worst we’ve had in awhile,” she said.
Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com.