Amid the worst drought recorded in Texas history, 2011 was also a year of fires spanning throughout the state and especially in West Texas.
In all of Texas, more than 3.9 million acres were burned from Nov. 15, 2010, through Nov. 15, 2011, 47.6 percent of the total acreage burned in the entire United States, according to the incident information system used by the Texas Forest Service.
The first major wildfire of the year burned in Fort Davis and also ended up being the largest in Texas history at nearly 315,000 acres burned. The fire destroyed houses and ranches over more than a month from April 9 until May 12.
Dubbed the Rock House Fire, after the building where it was ignited in Marfa, the wildfire took out about 40 houses in Fort Davis, threatened schools and burned thousands of acres of the Buffalo Trail Scout Ranch.
The fire tore through the community as winds pushed it so fast it skipped over parts of the ground it was burning.
Fire crews came from throughout the state and nation to control and contain the fire and a Type One Incident Management Team was deployed to help with the Rock House Fire and other fires that had since sprung up across West Texas.
The most effective way of fighting the fire was with fire. Much of the time containing the Rock House fire was spent setting up controlled burns, or setting a fire to meet the original fire line and prevent further spreading.
At times during the Rock House Fire, smoke could be seen and smelled in Odessa, coming from about 150 miles southeast.
But Midland/Odessa didn’t escape one of the worst fire seasons in Texas history without its own share of damage as the CEED Fire burned about 5,000 acres and took five days to put out near UTPB’s CEED building next to FM 1788 and south of Highway 191.
The concern grew when the fire jumped Loop 250 and threatened houses in Midland.
Evacuations were ordered and about 200 people set up at the Horseshoe Arena in Midland where the Red Cross, Crisis Intervention and Citizens Patrol provided services.
But firefighters were able to contain the fire before it reached the houses, and the only building taken by the fire was a small shed at Allegiance Specialty Hospital.
The Cannon Group, a collection of four fires in Pecos County, formed a special challenge to firefighters as several times during their burn began to converge on each other.
The DRH, Cannon, Little Smokey and Yates Field fires made up the group that burned south of I-10 west of Sheffield. While originally fought as four individual fires, crews eventually listed them as one group and fought them together.
Three days after the fire began on April 11 the four fires were burning toward each other.
The fires burned a total of 63,427 acres and did not damage any buildings.
Other major fires in 2011:
- The Wildcat Fire, which began April 11 near Robert Lee, spread south until it threatened San Angelo urban areas. The fire was contained May 2 and burned a total of 159,308 acres.
- In just one day, the Frying Pan Ranch Fire in Andrews County grew from 2,000 acres burned to 80,000 acres burned. It took six days until the fire was contained April 20 with a total of 80,907 acres burned.
- The Iron Mountain Fire, which started May 9 about 25 miles east of Alpine, burned 87,401 acres before being contained May 22.
- The Schwartz Fire, 20 miles east of Marathon that started May 7, burned 83,995 acres before being contained May 22.
- The Sutton Fire, which began April 11 about 20 miles southwest of Ozona, burned 30,814 acres before being contained. Date of containment is not listed.
- The Cooper Mountain Ranch Fire, which spread from Kent County to Stonewall and Fisher counties after it started April 11, destroyed four homes in Camp Springs and threatened the entire city of Rotan. It burned 152,000 acres before it was contained. Date of containment is not listed.
- Although not one of the bigger fires in Texas by way of acreage, the Bastrop Fire near Austin was the most destructive in the history of the state, claiming 1,645 homes, 38 buildings and two lives. The fire was contained at 34,068 acres on Sept. 30, 26 days after it started.