Fire destroys two mobile homes; more than 100 people evacuated

ENCINO -- A plume of black smoke guided Mary Perez home.

The 37-year-old nurse raced south on U.S. 281 from work in Falfurrias as the area's second wildfire of the day threatened her neighborhood.

"I was so nervous," Perez recounted as firefighters worked to contain the blaze that came within 100 yards of her Encino home on Las Cuatas Road.

"This is like a nightmare," she said, her eyes clearly irritated from the smoke that drifted from a nearby mobile home the fire had consumed.

The blaze began in the early evening hours along 281, just north of Farm-to-Market Road 755, as crews from across the Rio Grande Valley battled another fire about 19 miles west of Encino. Officials reported no injuries in connection with the fires, and details on how they started remain unclear.

The region received its first significant rainfall since January over the weekend - less than 2 inches - but the two fires Wednesday in southern Brooks County were a stark reminder of just how dry the area still is.

Wednesday's wildfire control efforts began about 2 p.m. when firefighters responded to a 300-acre blaze about 20 miles west of 281 along FM 755, said Linn-San Manuel Fire Chief Domingo Hinojosa Jr. No structures were destroyed in that fire.

Dozens of crews from agencies in Hidalgo, Brooks, Cameron and Willacy counties and the Texas Forest Service responded to the blaze, which burned a several-mile-wide swath by late Wednesday night.

As they tried to control the flames, a second blaze started along the route officials took to the first fire. The second blaze quickly spread into a several-acre inferno that posed an even greater threat to life and property than the first one.

Emergency responders had the second fire mostly contained by late Wednesday, but not before it consumed an estimated 900 acres, Mission Fire Chief Rick Saldaña said.

Officials diverted several resources from the first fire to the second one as they evacuated more than 150 people from the Encino area. The fire there consumed two mobile homes, but emergency responders managed to save close to 30 residences that had been threatened, said Tony Peña, Hidalgo County's emergency management coordinator.

Officials reported no human casualties; however, two dogs were reduced to bones near one of the mobile homes.

Winds exceeding 25 mph fanned the flames Wednesday, and plumes of smoke from both blazes were visible for miles. By late evening the winds started to abate and the air cooled, allowing firefighters to mostly contain the second fire.

Officials allowed the evacuees to return to their homes late Wednesday night as crews continued to battle the first blaze, which was moving across uninhabited brushland.

The Valley has been hit hard this fire season - typically the dry months from winter to spring - as La Niña weather conditions have brought above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation. High winds and low relative humidity have exacerbated the problem.

"Even though we had rain (recently), it's just a drop in the bucket," Peña said. "The only relief we have in sight is a tropical event."

Earlier this year, officials were optimistic the fire season would end last month. But an Hidalgo County burn ban that was expected to be lifted April 1 has been extended until July 6.

The area's worst blaze so far this season was on March 18-19 when flames swept across more than 41 square miles in northern Hidalgo County, scorching an area nearly the size of the city of McAllen.

Wednesday evening Mary's husband, Israel Perez, used a garden hose to douse the grass near his home as air support from the forest service flew overhead and a mobile home continued to burn less than 100 feet from him.

Like his wife, the 42-year-old custodian raced home from work in Falfurrias with the smoke as a guide. He said he couldn't believe the inferno was threatening his own neighborhood.

"Are you serious?" he recounted thinking as he drove toward his house. "It's scary."
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Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.