'All we could really do was watch': Texas grass fire destroys 9 homes
Fire analysts say drought, heat, wind and the La Niña weather pattern have led to dangerous conditions in Texas and Oklahoma.
At first glance, Jessie Monroe thought the smoke in the field was just from a small brush fire. Then the flames began to grow.
With temperatures in the triple digits and the wind gusting up to 20 mph, it didn't take long for the grass fire to damage or destroy at least 26 homes in the suburban neighborhood near Dallas on Monday.
The fire began roughly around 4 p.m. in Balch Springs, just outside of Dallas, after a landscaping crew cutting brush in a nearby dry field struck an object with a mower, creating sparks, according to Sean Davis, the city's fire marshal.
He added that there were no immediate reports of injuries.
"We just literally saw home after home just catch fire," Monroe told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. "Nothing can be done about it."
Blach Springs resident Jessie Monroe tells AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell how the small grass fire grew to destroy nine homes. (Bill Wadell/AccuWeather)
While Monroe's home had been a safe distance, Mitch Ryan's was one of the homes destroyed by the grass fire.
The owner of Ryde Executive Limo & Black Car Service, Ryan had been at the airport when his home alarm went off. A glance at the security camera footage showed the flames of the grass fire approaching his home.
His family wasn't home at the time of the fire, and a neighbor was able to evacuate Ryan's dogs. By the time Ryan arrived, there wasn't much he could do other than watch as the fire engulfed his home.
"All we could really do was just watch," Ryan told Wadell.
An aerial view of Balch Springs resident Mitch Ryan's home after the grass fire. (Bill Wadell/AccuWeather)
Overall, Ryan said, the house was a total loss. He estimated roughly 75% of his roof is gone, not to mention the damage done to the kitchen and walls of the home.
Picking through the rubble, the family was able to salvage a few things, however. None of the cabinets holding vital medication were touched, and his wife's wedding dress, which had been carefully stored in a closet where the majority of the fire had burned, was unscathed.
Balch Springs resident Mitch Ryan tells AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell all he could do was watch as the grass fire destroyed his home. (Bill Wadell/AccuWeather)
Ryan added that Monday was not the first time the field had caught fire, and cited a previous incident in which the flames had reached his home's fence line but no farther. This year, the grass had been climbing over the fence, he said.
“I’m not saying it would have prevented it, but I think it would have helped a lot had it been maintained. [Then] that fire might not have reached any of these homes," Ryan said.
Balch Springs resident Mitch Ryan's home after the grass fire burned through the neighborhood on Monday, July 25. (Bill Wadell/AccuWeather)
Fire Analyst Logan Scherschel told Wadell that some of the busier fire seasons have occurred during La Niña years due to above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation, priming grass and trees as fuel.
"Drought starts to emerge in the fall and then intensifies through the winter and the spring, so all of our fuels are kind of primed going into the hot and dry summers that we experience," Scherschel said. "That's how this season has built up."
Fuel moisture started out below normal in central and north Texas as drought intensified into the spring, according to Scherschel. Then, come mid-June through July, temperatures escalated to the triple digits, and a deficit in rainfall continued to dry out fuels.
In late April, nearly 47% of Dallas County was experiencing severe to exceptional drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Its six-value scale of drought intensity ranges from none to exceptional drought (D4), with severe drought (D2) landing near the center.
An overview of drought intensity across Texas as of July 19, 2022. (U.S. Drought Monitor)
By mid-July, that percentage had risen to nearly 73% with 31% experiencing extreme to exceptional drought conditions. As of July 19, 100% of the county was experiencing severe to exceptional drought conditions. Roughly 71% of the county was experiencing extreme to exceptional drought conditions.
As of Thursday, July 28, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had gone 54 consecutive days with no measurable rainfall, tying with a streak from 1955 as the fifth longest stretch of dry weather.
This warmer, drier weather has not only impacted the fuel, but also the weather thresholds that Scherschel considers when determining a fire threat.
In general, the thresholds include temperatures over 90 degrees, relative humidity under 25% and winds over 15 mph. However, the conditions of the fuels and temperatures at or above 100 degrees as Dallas experienced may lower the threshold for the other two, making it easier for a fire to spark, according to Scherschel.
Fire season-ending events in Texas usually arrive near the end of August going into October in the form of long-duration rainfall from tropical storms or hurricanes tracking through the state, he said. However, he described the end of hurricane season as a "wildcard," especially if the storms move farther east and go through Louisiana.
"That’s when we can see some of our really extreme fire danger days is when we get on that left side of a tropical storm or a hurricane," Scherschel said. "The humidity and the winds coming off those storms can produce some really extreme fire behavior, especially because August is our peak drying timeframe, so our fuels are just getting worse and worse coming up to that point."
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