Why prescribed burn wasn't stopped before it sparked Pauline Road Fire, which is now 95% contained
SAN JACINTO COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- The Pauline Road Fire in San Jacinto and Montgomery counties is now almost entirely contained.
Officials confirm the more than 2,000-acre fire started from a prescribed burn on a private property in San Jacinto County.
Some people across the community have asked why the prescribed burn was able to be conducted with the strong winds in the forecast.
Agencies aren't saying much as they cite the ongoing fire investigation.
At this point, it's unclear if anyone could face any kind of consequence in light of last week's fire. One thing for sure many people are wondering is why the prescribed burn was allowed when the wind was so strong.
"You trust most people have common sense not to burn in those winds," San Jacinto County Judge Fritz Faulkner said. "But things happen. Wind changes, things get away, I suppose."
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In a one-on-one interview with ABC13, Faulkner at the heels of a wildfire that started on someone's private property says the county isn't in a burn ban and decided against one Monday morning because of the overnight rain.
"The wind is not blowing like it was last week," Faulkner said.
The judge and officials at the Texas A&M Forest Service would not go into detail on the specifics of last week's situation or what went wrong continuously, citing the ongoing fire investigation.
"When you're conducting a prescribed burn, especially if that person is certified and insured, that we are talking about of low-intensity fire put on the ground intentionally to meet forest management and ecological objectives," Forest Service spokesperson Matthew Ford said.
Last week's fire was a prescribed burn on private property. What's unclear is if any agency can pull the plug on a scheduled burn if the weather conditions aren't good.
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"They don't have to check in with us. I visited with my fire marshal this morning about that, and they said well, they check in with the forest service and they basically monitor and keep up where these things are going," Faulkner said.
Forest service representatives said the same.
"We can only recommend and advise that they adhere to any plan based on what we're seeing. But in reality --- we're just a notification, and that goes to certified and insured prescribed burn managers," Ford said.
Faulkner tells ABC13 he'd have to do research on this to find out if there's a way to pass more stringent rules on these kinds of burns.
ABC13 has submitted a public records request for more details on this fire.
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