JASPER COUNTY, Texas — The Shearwood Creek Fire which has been burning in Jasper County since last Thursday is now 95% contained.
As of noon on Monday the fire has burned a total of 3,562 acres and is 95% contained according to the Forest Service's incident viewer online.
Jasper County Judge Mark Allen credits some of the progress to the weather saying that Sunday night's rain was a big help.
A total of six residences, three hunting camps and seven barns or outbuildings have been destroyed in the wildfire Allen told 12News on Monday.
On Sunday evening at 6 p.m. residents were allowed to return to areas affected by the fire to check on their property.
The county asked that only residents of the area travel on affected county roads and requested that citizens be aware of fire response personnel who are still actively monitoring fires in the vicinity.
Residents should be careful when returning to their homes and keep an eye out for any possible new fires starting.
The shelters will remain open and will continue feeding area residents and first responders.
A disaster declaration was issued for Jasper County on Friday.
Forest Service and fire personnel will remain in the area for a few more days to monitor the hot zone for any fires that may rekindle due to wind or falling pine needles and leaves.
The Shearwood Creek Fire began Thursday afternoon before 2 p.m. off County Road 32 south of Texas Highway 63 and by Friday morning had consumed 3,500 acres according to the A&M Forest Service Incident Viewer map.
Sunday, August 27, 2023, The Beech Grove Fire Department announced they are working hotspots against a west-wind and trying to keep the fire from jumping across County Road 37, they said on a Facebook-live video. Everything East of 37 is unburned.
The wildfire, which is 80% contained and is currently the largest active wildfire in Texas, forced the evacuation of some residents in the area.
Hillsborough, NC Commissioner, Mark Bell, will be blading the ditches to cut back the dry straw and grass, according to the Facebook post.
Saturday, August 26, Judge Allen, opened Ranch Road 255 and all roads South of 255.
"They feel like they've got pretty good containment, they've got a fire-line cut around this. Of course, the Neches River also is part of that line. And they're holding and right now there are four service assets that are just moving back and forth, constantly checking hotspots that flare up," Allen said.
Allen also told 12News that they are monitoring the fire throughout the evening and into the night,
"See where we stand in the morning. But I'm really thinking that things are really looking good. We also have, I don't want to jinx it, I get a little bit more entail and our 5:00 briefing," said Allen.
The evacuation order is still standing on county roads between the Neches River and Texas Highway 63.
Allen estimated that 300-400 people were displaced by the wildfire. Deputies actually went out and knocked on doors to tell residents how serious the situation was and asked them to please leave, Allen told 12News.
“Right now the key is to try to stop this fire,” Allen said.
Allen says they've had some people from Florida, Puerto Rico and all over Texas come to Jasper County to fight the blaze.
"We have those teams deployed to relieve our local firefighters and local forest service workers who have been working all night," he said.
Residents near County Road 32, 33, 34, 36 and 37 were evacuated as well as residents from the Neches River to Highway 63 along FM255 according to the Jasper County Sheriff's Office.
Evacuations for homes north of Rocky Springs, Fox Landing and adjacent areas were ordered by the Tyler County Sheriff's Office.
Several structures have been destroyed and several more are in danger according to the Jasper County Sheriff's Office.
"We have six residences that were destroyed thus far. We're still ascertaining on how many of those are secondary homes versus primary homes." Allen said.
Allen told 12News that he believes several of the structures destroyed are secondary homes or hunting lodges for people that live outside the area.
"So, it's a bad thing no matter where you look at it, but at least in a lot of these cases, it's not somebody's primary residence where they lose everything," said Allen.
The focus for the next 24 hours is monitoring the burned areas and safeguarding the remaining properties, Allen said.
"We're going to have brush truck strike teams from the state and local firefighters that will be just basically canvassing the area repeatedly. Just around and around and around all evening and all night," Allen said.
This is to ensure whatever fuel is still smoldering is burned out. Firefighters are putting fires out whenever they do grow. This can be from the wind or a tree falling across the road and starting more fire on the other side, Allen explained.
Spindletop arrived Saturday to provide any kind of comfort mental-health services, said Allen.
"They've got resources here to provide counseling, in emergency response help to anybody that's been a victim of this fire, as well as a lot of our emergency responders who need some sort of help during this, you know, they've been fatigued or going through a lot. So we're here, which took a lot of resources on the ground," said Allen.
Judge Allen told 12News that he does anticipate that they will be mobilizing Sunday morning, to get greater containment.
Here's what we know...
- 3,500 acres burned
- 70% contained
- Evacuation in effect
- Residents from the Neches River to Hwy 63 on FM 255
- Residents near County Road 32, 33 and 34, 36 and 37
- Red Cross Shelters
- Harvest Church of Southeast Texas, 1501 S. Wheeler St, Jasper
- Colmesneil High School, 610 Elder St, Colmesneil
- Other shelters in Jasper County
- Beech Grove Baptist Church, 10008 FM 777
- Peachtree Baptist Church, 360 FM 254
- Ebenezer Baptist Church, 1277 CR 44, Jasper
The Newton High School football game Friday night against Anahuac has been canceled due to all the smoke in the air but schools Jasper ISD, Newton ISD Brookeland ISD did classes as normal on Friday. The game will not be rescheduled according to Newton superintendent Michelle Barrow.
At about 3:15 a.m. Friday morning Beech Grove Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief James Gunter took to Facebook to update residents about the fire.
Gunter and his firefighters at the time had been working on the fire for about 15 hours he said in the Facebook live video.
“I have to admit this is probably one of the worst woods fires I've ever been on in my 39 years. It did some things today that I've not seen a fire do before,” Gunter said in the video.
He noted that there were several structures that were destroyed by the fire but said he believes many of those were weekend homes or hunting camps.
“We did not save them all today. But we saved a whole lot more than we lost,” Gunter said in the video.
No injuries or deaths have been reported in connection with the fire according to Gunter.
“To my knowledge we have zero injuries from this fire. That in itself is pretty daggum remarkable,” he said.
Jasper County Judge Mark Allen toured some of the “hot zone” of the wildfire on Thursday night and told 12News that he had seen several homes on County Road 33 and another on County Road 37.
“In total we've lost 5-6 houses. But we are still going in through those neighborhoods because we only have 50% containment,” Jasper County Judge Mark Allen told 12News on Friday.
A “post fire assessment team” was brought in after daylight on Friday morning figure out structures, homes or other infrastructure were destroyed or damaged by the wildfire according Sean Dugan of the Texas Forest Service.
“Once they finish their efforts then we'll have an accurate report,” Dugan told 12News.
Dugan also noted that the fire was being “hammered” by air tankers dropping water on the wildfire Friday morning.
The county judge urged residents to stay away until officials clear the area urging them to be safe and patient.
“There's still fire everywhere up and down those roads,” Allen said, “You can't get in there and get trapped.”
He noted that some firefighters had almost gotten trapped but were able to escape.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a temporary flight restriction in the area of the fire due to firefighting aircraft operations, so no drones are allowed to be flown in the area of the fire.
The restriction is currently set until Wednesday, August 30, 2023 at 9 p.m.
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan said in a Thursday Facebook post that the following state resources have been assigned to support first responders in the area:
- 8 dozers
- 12 state/ federal fire engines
- Air attack (air coordination aircraft)
- 4 single engine scoopers
- T1 Helicopter (large)
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.