San Gabriel Fire: Wildfire nearly contained, but still remains threat
GEORGETOWN, Texas - Swirls of ash and smoke could be seen Monday morning spinning out of the burn zone along the north fork of the San Gabriel River between Georgetown and Liberty Hill.
Fire crews spent the day attacking hotspots that remained within the San Gabriel Wildfire-451 acre scare. Monday afternoon, Walter Flocke with the Texas A&M Forest Service said the fire was 90% contained.
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"That 90% containment means that the incident commander is now sure that 90% of those containment lines constructed by our dozer crews will be able to hold and not have any fire escape outside those lines," said Flocke.
The fire may have been ignited by a property owner who was using a cutting torch. An official ruling isn’t expected until Wednesday, but Liberty Hill Fire Marshall Michael Dickens did offer a warning.
"If you are going to be doing any type of outside work, grinding, welding, anything like that, make sure you have somebody, beside yourself, there watching for any sparks and flames. Make sure you have water on site & quickly extinguish it," said Dickens.
The fire started Saturday afternoon. Images of the flames were recorded by Hal Hawes, who lives on the northern edge.
"I’ve made the recordings right before the fire crossed the Saint Gabriel River," said Hawes. "It’s a scary, it happened very fast, one little mistake can hurt a lot of people."
At one point, 65 homes were evacuated Saturday. Hawes and a family member tried to cut fire breaks with a bulldozer. They were almost overrun by the flames.
"When you are in the middle of it you’re scared, and I was, I was scared for all of my family, all the houses that were in the line of the fire," said Hawes.
Forward progression of the fire was stopped Sunday afternoon. No lives or homes were lost. An aerial bombardment was credited for that. Large and small air tankers made multiple runs. One plane scooped up Water from Lake Georgetown.
"I called it the air Calvary, the nine different fixed wing planes and helicopters. If you could see it from there, you’ll see that Lake Georgetown is literally 300 yards from where most of the fire has been, they would literally dive in, fill it with water, within a matter of a minute, circling back to refilled airplanes with water," said Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell.
Airdrops continued Monday afternoon after some hot spots flared up. That threat is why residents were warned to be mindful of the fire risk. Fire crews are expected to stay on scene for at least the next 24 hours.