Wildfires continue to rage across the State of Texas.
Fire departments in Dallas County have contained a new grass fire that broke out in Cedar Hill State Park on Wednesday.
Cedar Hill State Park is a 1,826 acres state park located on the shores of the 7,500-acre Joe Pool Lake, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The park is located 20 miles from Downtown Dallas and features a number of amenities such as trails, camping, swimming, and more.
The Cedar Hill Fire Department reported in a Facebook post that it had responded to a wildfire at the park on August 9. The blaze forced officials to close both lanes of traffic for FM 1382 and advised motorists on the way to Grand Prairie to take alternate routes, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The department posted footage of personnel fighting the fire and dropping fire retardant on the blaze with the use of a C-130 aircraft.
Alison Ream, assistant city manager for the City of Cedar Hill, told The Dallas Morning News that multiple fire agencies, including Grand Prairie, Dallas, and Ovilla, had responded to the scene of the fire. Dallas Fire-Rescue sent seven engines, two trucks, a trail unit, and more to assist.
The fire burned nearly 13 acres.
Fire personnel’s combined efforts were successful, with Texas A&M Forest Service reporting that the wildfire was 100% contained as of August 11. Meanwhile, the Double Back Fire in Johnson County is 95% contained and has burned 1,320 acres.
Adam Turner, a spokesperson for the Texas A&M Forest Service, told the DMN that it, too, had assisted in the Cedar Hill Fire’s containment by bringing two large air tankers of fire retardant to drop on the blaze.
“Those retardant drops pretty much stopped forward progress of that fire and really allowed the local resources from Dallas County to put a handle onto it until our heavy equipment got there,” Turner told the DMN when the fire was not yet fully contained.
The agency has aided in the containment of 19 wildfires across the state of Texas and is currently helping contain 18 more across the state. As of August 10, the agency has received 27 new requests for assistance and expects more to come as the weekend approaches.
“There is a high potential for wildfires that are resistant to control to occur through Friday, as critical fire weather is forecast for regions of the state where vegetation has been primed by persistent hot and dry weather over the past six weeks,” the agency said on its website. “Areas of concern include the Cross Timbers, Rolling Plains, Eastern/Western Hill Country where oak/juniper fuel is present and for the Western Pineywoods as well as Central and Southeast Texas where pine fuel is present.”
“As a reminder to everyone: our city is facing scorching summer heat, so let’s do our part in keeping it safe,” the Cedar Fire Department wrote in its Facebook post.