Still burnin'

While dry conditions have Odessa fire crews preparing to fight flames today — just in case —the Texas Forest Service is working to extinguish a fire that has burned more than 200,000 acres down the road.

“Odessa grass is like gasoline,” Odessa assistant fire chief Taner Drake, said. “It can ignite at the smallest spark — so the drier conditions won’t help things.”

KOSA-TV meteorologist Mike Moritz said Thursday’s forecasted weather makes more fires a huge possibility.

“We’re expecting winds from the southwest at around 25 mph,” Mortiz said. “It’s going to be warm and dry, so there’s still going to be a critical fire hazard.”

That could be particularly bad while firefighters are still working to contain a 219,000-acre fire in Sterling County.

Even more, Moritz said Sunday could also be a “bad day for fires.”

Because of the possibility of flames, Drake said Odessa firefighters would be on high alert.

“We’re basically going to make sure everything is ready to go in case a big grass fire breaks out,” he said. “We’re going to try to make sure our equipment is ready, and we have an overtime list just in case a fire gets too bad, and we need extra men at the scene.”

While Odessa prepares in the event of more fires, West Odessa Volunteer Fire Chief Jimmy Ellis said he hopes the department takes more caution at the next fire.

“We need to make sure we don’t mess up our equipment next time,” Ellis said. “Some of the firetrucks only had a few scratches, but we were lucky. Those pumpers we have shouldn’t have been that deep in the fire. We’re lucky they weren’t seriously damaged.”

Ellis said the Texas Forest Service has the right equipment to go deep into fires.

“Our trucks could get stuck, and I’ve seen it happen before,” he said.

Texas Forest Service public information officer John Bear said forest service crews would also be ready at a moment’s notice in case a big grass fire starts.

“We definitely won’t have our guard down in the upcoming days,” he said. “We have people ready to roll at any moment a grass fire breaks out.”

Bear said all of the Texas Forest Service members are under “three-minute notification.”

“They have three minutes to be in their truck and to be heading toward wherever a major fire is going to be,” he said.

While preparing for the possibility of new fires, Bear said forest service crews are still trying to put out another blaze.

A major grass fire in Sterling County, which is being called the “Glass Fire,” has burned more than 219,000 acres and is still actively burning.

“We’re still working on that ‘Glass Fire,’ ” Bear said at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. “It’s about 75 percent contained right now.”

Bear said a 3,330-acre fire Monday in southeast Odessa wasn’t caused by a welder or a driver throwing a cigarette out the window — which is what some Internet posters have speculated.

“I believe it was a downed power line that caused the fire in Odessa,” he said. “That’s what I’ve heard from the people in Odessa.”

Drake said he didn’t have that information Wednesday.

“We’re still compiling information,” Drake said. “I can say that it certainly doesn’t look like arson though.”

Bear said fires in Ward County, Frankel City in Andrews County, Midland County and Lea County, N.M., were all contained by late Tuesday.

There were many acres of land burned in the Monday fires:

>> 3,300: Acres burned in Odessa.

>> 2,000: Acres burned in Frankel City, Andrews County.

>> 10,000: Acres burned in Midland County.

>> 219,000: Acres burned in Sterling City.

>> 52,000: Acres burned in Lea County, N.M.

>> 286,300: Total Permian Basin acres burned.