An Aggressive Frontal Attack Kept Whirling Pines Fire From Spreading

Local and regional fire services spent the better part of two days containing the Whirling Pines fire near Warda this week.

The fire started early Monday morning, March 16, when strong winds that night caused a large tree to fall on a power line. Fayette County Emergency Management Coordinator Angela Hahn said the tree that fell was not in the power line right-of-way, however, it was tall enough to reach the power lines.

The initial call came in to 911 dispatchers shortly after midnight on Monday. La Grange Volunteer Fire Department responded along with Winchester Volunteer Fire Department. Soon after arrival they called for assistance from the Texas A&M Forest Service out of Smithville.

“They originally thought 40 acres were burning,” said Hahn. “But after they were able to do some mapping, they determined it was 25 acres in total.”

The fire threatened about 20 structures at Camp Lost Pines in Warda along with five nearby residential structures.

Sean McNicholas, the fire coordinator for Texas A&M Forest Service out of Smithville, said his agency responded with two bulldozers and incident command resources to supplement the two local fire departments.

“We made an aggressive frontal attack with the dozers,” McNicholas said.

The dozers began plowing a fire break around the perimeter of the fire. During this time, La Grange and Winchester firefighters conducted fire lookouts and structure protection at Camp Lost Pines. In places where fire activity and terrain prevented the dozers from operating, firefighters conducted back-burns to encircle the burn area, McNicholas said.

Around 10 a.m. on Monday a strike team from the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS) out of Lampasas arrived to assist with the back-burns and mopup activities.

The area is heavily wooded with tall pine trees along with understory vegetation.

“We had a lot of heavy brush and pine timber,” Mc-Nicholas said. “All the pine duff created an issue, and then there was juniper mixed in there as well. This combination of fuels and critical fire weather made firefighting conditions relatively volatile.”

McNicholas said one structure, an old abandoned cabin at Camp Lost Pines, suffered some damage in the fire.

“The roof on the structure had pine litter that was burning,” McNicholas said. “Unified command in coordination with local firefighters responded with a brush truck to this abandoned cabin. La Grange Fire and Winchester Fire made an aggressive attack, leaving minimal damage to the abandoned cabin.

“That was a really key point in the fire,” McNicholas said. “If that structure had become involved, it would have posed quite a number of issues. La Grange and Winchester did a super good job on that attack to stop that structure from burning. We would have had multiple structures immediately threatened if that structure had gone up.”

Fire personnel spent most of Tuesday, March 17, conducting “mop-up” operations. The Texas Military Department sent a Type 1 helicopter with the callsign “Alamo 02” to perform bucket drops to aid in suppression and containment of the fire. The fire was considered 100 percent contained around 5:21 p.m. on Tuesday. A few personnel stayed on site Wednesday, March 18, to ensure no new fires popped up.

McNicholas praised local first responders, especially the La Grange and Winchester firefighters.

“The La Grange and Winchester fire departments did a excellent job,” he said.

Fayette County EMS and Fayette County Sheriff’s Office assisted throughout the two-day operation. Fayette County EMS Director Josh Vandever reported that Taqueria Rio Verde in La Grange donated breakfast tacos to all first responders at the fire on Monday. In addition, he said Lazy Q Ranch in Winchester provided coffee for the firefighters. Camp Lost Pines also opened their facilities to firefighters for rest, recuperation, coffee and hot meals.

No one was injured in the fire.

“It was a really good coordinated effort by everybody who was involved in it,” Hahn said.