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Firefighters have busy day

By Mason Lerner
The Daily News

Reprinted here here with permission.

Published January 14, 2006

Firefighters had their hands full battling grass fires across the county Friday afternoon. Two storage trailers were destroyed in a fire that was burning in Kemah, while Texas City firefighters were busy with a pair of fires.

The largest of the fires near Kemah had Laura Reeves breathing a sigh of relief after it threatened to consume her son’s mobile home. She credited a quick response by the Kemah Volunteer Fire Department with stopping the fire only feet from the trailer, which sits on the same lot as her house.

She watched from a deck overlooking the lake behind her house as firefighters from nine fire departments fought to contain the blaze on the property of League City Paving Co. in the 2500 block of Anders Lane, just outside of Kemah.

“We were pretty concerned there for a while,” Reeves said.

Firefighters on the scene said she had reason to be.

“If they hadn’t had a good response time, it would have cooked,” said Paul Thomas of the San Leon Volunteer Fire Department.

Thomas said the firefighters from Kemah were on the scene just 4 1/2 minutes after receiving the call.

The fire came during a red flag warning that had been issued by the National Weather Service for much of Southeast Texas, including Galveston County. A red flag warning indicates the existence of critical weather conditions, including wind and low humidity.

Firefighters from Kemah, League City, Seabrook, Bacliff, Webster, Nassau Bay, San Leon, Pasadena and Friendswood responded to the fire.

A Dickinson pumper truck responding to the fire was involved in a traffic enroute. According to initial reports the fire engine struck another vehicle while making its way to the blaze. No one was hurt, the Texas Department of Public Safety is investigating the wreck.

Mike Powell, district chief of the League City Fire Department, said it would probably take several days to determine the cause of the fire. Early Friday night, he said he was satisfied to have the fire “cornered.”

“I’d say we have it about 90 percent contained,” he said Friday just before 6 p.m. “But it’s going to be a while before it is going to be out totally. It could go into the night hours.”

Powell said the fire was “a grass fire with a lot of obstacles.” He said the wind and dry air, coupled with physical interference from abandoned vehicles, concrete blocks, heavy brush and two trailers that seemed to be the source of the fire, were making the blaze especially challenging to fight.

He said there were several drums in the burning trailers, but he was not yet aware if they contained hazardous material.

Capt. Gerald Looper of the Kemah Fire Department said there were no reported injuries, and he did not expect any.

Photos from the fire are below:

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