Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City and county firefighters spent more than four hours Wednesday battling a stubborn brush blaze on the grounds of the San Felipe Springs Golf Course.
Del Rio Fire Department Chief David Harrison told the 830 Times the fire was reported at 4:34 p.m. Wednesday.
“It was reported as being on the golf course near the city’s water pumps, and the fire was in the carrizo cane and brush at the edge of the San Felipe Creek,” Harrison said.
Black smoke from the fire roiled over rooftops on the east side of the city, but Harrison said the fire at no time endangered structures or persons.
The fire chief said 13 city firefighters and five county firefighters responded to extinguish the blaze.
“It was a little bit difficult for us to get access to the fire with the engines the city has, so the county brought its mobile brush units to access the stuff we couldn’t get to,” Harrison said.
He said an emergency medical services unit with three persons also was dispatched to the scene of the fire from Val Verde Regional Medical Center.
In a telephone interview at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Harrison said five city fire department units remained at the scene of the fire, dealing with hot spots.
Harrison said no firefighters were injured and no property was damaged.
Harrison said he does not know how the fire might have ignited, adding the firefighters who responded to the blaze had not yet filed their reports on the incident.
“It could be a combination of the low humidity and the heat, and the fact that everything getting real dry again. It’s really just that time of year when we see these types of fires,” Harrison said, adding the fire department had been called to a number of smaller grass fires around the city earlier in the day.
