ROBSTOWN, Texas — Several area fire crews arrived to the scene of a large fire between Robstown and Driscoll early this afternoon as the Lost Creek community off of County Road 30 was turned into something that resembled a Hollywood disaster movie.
The fire broke out sometime after 11:00 a.m. and firefighters were on the scene quickly as a number of homes, vehicles, and boats were all at risk for burning up.
Robstown Fire Chief, Javier Zapata, was in charge of this operation and he was grateful for all of the help that he got. "We have multiple agencies out here, we've got Agua Dulce, Robstown, Corpus, Bluntzer, Bishop, and I'm still getting a count of who all else is out here. The forestry is also out here assisting us, and we're going to have an airdrop pretty soon also."
The Texas Forestry Service sent planes from their task force in Alice to drop fire retardant on the brushfire. Next, it was time for the helicopter to move in and spread thousands of gallons of water across the remaining flames.
The Forest Service brought in heavy equipment. Incident Commander, Jonathan Holter, explains why their mission is so critical out here, "So we don't lose anybody, we don't have any safety issues, no firefighter injuries, we minimize damage to property, and we certainly do our best to eliminate any risk of private landowners or injuries to people."
Firefighters battled this brushfire for several hours. When we arrived at the very beginning all of the structures were still standing in cars and boats were sitting nearby. Eventually as the fire continued to spread we all had to retreat and in the end one of the mobile homes and several vehicles and a boat were burned up.
Firefighters believe that it was someone out mowing who ended up accidentally sparking this fire. High winds and tall dry grass, along with low humidity, certainly helped to fuel the fire that endangered surrounding property.
Holter reminds the community to avoid any outdoor activities, like mowing or welding, that could start a fire between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
This is a developing story. Stay with 3NEWS for updates.
More from 3News on KIIITV.com:
- Border Patrol: Drug smugglers float SUV full of marijuana across Rio Grande
- Celebrating a Tejano music legend, 'Selena' returns to theaters for quarter-century anniversary
- Woman arrested after giving her newborn to stranger on the street, Corpus Christi police say
- Spring Break shooting injures three on Corpus Christi beach
- Survivor's powerful story of recovery & strength becomes focus of new documentary
- Spring Breaker billed almost $3K for water rescue after video shows he intentionally jumped off Cole Park Pier
- New federal grant will aid in the crackdown of drug trafficking in Bishop
Want to send us a news tip?
Put your name and contact information below so we can get in touch with you about your story should we have questions or need more information. We realize some stories are sensitive in nature. Let us know if you'd like to remain anonymous.
If you do not have a photo/video to submit, just click "OK" to skip that prompt.