NewsLocal NewsIn Your NeighborhoodMcLennan County

Actions

Massive brush fire burns 50 acres in Waco

Posted at 11:47 PM, Jun 24, 2022
and last updated 2022-06-25 00:47:25-04

WACO, Texas — Shane McLellan is a land owner in Waco. He owns 9 acres but on Friday afternoon, he almost lost some of that during a massive brush fire near Orchard and Kendall Lane.

"We grabbed water hoses and within two or three minutes, we started putting it out with fire houses," McLellan said.

While he still lost about six acres, McLellan and his neighbors were able to slow the flames until the fire department arrived.

"If we wouldn't have been here to put that fire out, it would have burned our home, our farm, all of our animals," he said.

The fire began just before 2 p.m. when a construction crew in the area was doing iron work, according to fire officials. Fire Marshall Office's Lt. Keith Guillory said one spark and dry weather lead to 50 acres of damage.

"Upon our crews arrival, they did arrive to a brush fire that was moving very quickly due to the wind and the drought conditions that we've had in recent days," he said.

With the fire quickly spreading, surrounding cities fire departments also responded along with three aircrafts dropping water.

Lt. Guillory confirmed 20 houses on Orchard Lane were evacuated around 3 p.m. Most people were back in their homes in the next few hours.

"We do have some vehicles that were lost as well as some other structures that were lost during this time," Lt. Guillory said. "There were no injuries or deaths reported thus far."

Local residents said it could have been a lot worse and they were grateful for the firefighter response.

"Thank goodness they were able to get here as quickly as they did," McLellan said.