West TX Fires

[neintales]

I wish I had more info about how to help elsewhere, but this post is about the fires nearest to me. There's since original posting been fires ALL OVER down here- including more in West Texas just not so close that I could actually see the flames outlining the mountains at times (photo actually taken by my friend Alex, but that's the view on the

Comments

[staxxy]

throwing cigarettes out your window is a major offense up here. The police pull you over and give you a ticket for it, and it goes on your record. I think it is classified as a minor form of arson in our state. But then, we have had enough forest fires here to make it completely unreasonable for anyone to think that sort of behavior is okay.

It just stuns me how stupid and selfish people can really be.

[neintales]

There's technically bans on it here, but if there's no actual state trooper or deputy sherriff in sight? People still do it, knowing chances are slim anyone will report/prove/catch them.

And then sometimes, there's a fire. Sometimes it barely burns a hundred feet before fire depts get to it and put it out, sometimes it burns over 10,000 acres like the Roper Fire this weekend.

[neintales]

Oh and for those who wander here new- the Roper Fire was a smaller fire, not the one that did all the damage, that was started with a carelessly flicked cigarette not far from my town, at a Uni building. And while it was a smaller fire... it still burned from HWY 90 and that building almost all the way to Fort Stockton. Which is over a forty minute drive. Not counting the territory covered when it blew away from highways.

So... damn big fire, just not AS big, and thankfully there's not as many ranches, towns, etc that way, so supposedly there wasn't much real damage... although I have yet to find an actual full report on it with damage estimates. Hell we don't have real damage estimates yet from Rock Shop Fire, just have people needing homes and ranchers needing supplies.

[journalfag]

It's so dry right now that a tail pipe can spark a fire. The one here ( Midland county )was started on purpose and another one was started by melting metal falling off a junked truck. I'm in Odessa, which is 11 miles from Midland and the areas counties overlap. So for a few days it was bad, smoke and the smell was thick. Then areas like Andrews and Gardendale are burning, so we're surrounded. When the Ft Davis fire was really bad, I could see the smoke from my house and we're 3 hours away.

[neintales]

Yeah the 'accidental arson' was in Weatherford county, hadn't heard about the junked trunk origin for the other near you.

The Rock Shop fire that you saw smoke from has been officially declared to have started due to an electrical fault in a building that was semi-abandoned but still had utilities, the Roper Fire that nearly got into my town (and is in the photo) was started by some ass flicking a cigarette at an event locally.

Currently TX law is that it is considered arson if someone accidentally starts a fire that injures people or destroys property. They're now looking at changing it to match some other states', where throwing out a lit cigarette or ignoring red flag days and doing certain types of fire-causing activities (like trash burning) will count as arson even without a resulting fire if caught.

[journalfag]

Was it the homeless man who accidentally started the one in Weatherford? He left his camp fire coals burning to go buy beer. Now, I don't begrudge the homeless needing a camp fire, but being homeless does not excuse you from basic fire safety practices. The fire wasn't because he is homeless, it was because he's an idjit and didn't make sure the coals were out.

The guy who started the one in Midland, that fire combined with the fire started from melting metal and became 1 large fire. No one knows much about the arson, because it's odd. Someone spotted him crawling away from it on his belly after noticing a kitchen lighten going missing.

[neintales]

Yeah that was the homeless man, and you're right about fire safety practices.

Some news bits I saw said someone saw a guy light fire side of road and drive away fast for a Midland-area one, and there was an article saying that police & fire depts are looking into past fire histories somewhere or other fearing serial arsonist- but I'd have to re-Google to find it again and figure out where that is.

I've had to do serious Googling to find any decent news stories at all about anything- though at least this week I don't have to go past 3 pages of local links only or stories from last year before I find new news results for "texas fires" (which was the case for the first five days or so)

[journalfag]

Well there's been several here, so you're probably getting them all mushed into 1 story. God forbid any national news stations give a shit enough to get it right. We're just backwoods dirt farmers after all.