The Shearwood Creek Fire has burned an estimated 3,700 acres as of Saturday afternoon.
Courtesy of Texas AM Forest Service
Beaumont Enterprise
Kaitlin Bain, Editor
The Shearwood Creek Fire in Jasper County is now 95% contained -- days after the fire ballooned from its ignition point to thousands of acres in just hours.
According to the Texas A&M Forest Service, the fire burned 3,562 acres. But some spot fires are still likely.
"We're not saying 100% contained because we still have the possibility for some spot fires, even with the rain we had last night, which really, really helped," said Jasper County Judge Mark Allen. "There's still going to be the shedding of leaves and pine needles. Some of that is going to reignite."
At its height, firefighters from Tennessee, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, Florida, San Antonio, Dallas, Humble and other areas, as well as those from local fire departments, worked together to put out the blaze.
The fire's cause is still unknown, but Allen said the Jasper County Sheriff's Office has pinpointed where the fire started and a couple witnesses saw it and tried to put it out themselves before it grew to be unmanageable, which is expected to help law enforcement determine the cause.
"We do belong to Crime Stoppers of Southeast Texas. I encourage anyone that has information regarding the start of any fire to call that, but we're not declaring it any kind of criminal action at this time," Allen said. "It could have been a cigarette being thrown out, sparks from a trailer chain -- it would be nice to know what caused the fire that destroyed several thousand acres and more than a dozen structures."
The county logged seven barns and out buildings, five homes, three hunting cabins and a number of fences destroyed and no deaths of residents, firefighters, pets or livestock.
However, it also destroyed thousands of acres of trees, largely timber land that companies now have to determine how to reseed and move forward, Allen said.
The total loss as a result of the fire is unknown at this time, but Allen said he expected it to amount to several million dollars that will be felt by residents for a considerable amount of time.
"Let's say you had 50 cows, and you depend on that hay and grass that burned up to feed those cows. It's already been a challenging year and then in the winter you have to sell your cows, and the price of cattle is going down because everyone is selling them," he said. "You have damage to your house, your property, your fence. You're looking at a lot of different things involved. I think it's going to be a lot of loss."
He hopes the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be able to provide residents assistance, and the county is working with the Red Cross to establish an information center where affected residents can work with professionals to determine what funds might be available.
The destruction also raises the possibility that a serious rain event, like a hurricane or other storm, could create flooding in new places or undermine roads and home foundations since it no longer has timber to hold the soil and absorb the water. But outside of keeping an eye out for possible problems, there isn't much the county can do to alleviate the potential at this time.
For now, Allen is reminding residents that the county is still under a burn ban and asking them to report any fires immediately.
"We need to be aware it's still very dry. The ground's already absorbed last night's water," he said. "It just takes one match, one cigarette, one trash pile to take out 3,500 acres."