Winter wildfire scorches 175 acres near Gillespie–Blanco line, damaging fire trucks

Smoke still clung to the hills along Althaus Davis Road on Monday morning, thin wisps rising from blackened grass only a few yards from unscathed fence posts and ranch houses.

A day earlier, on a February afternoon when many Hill Country residents were thinking about winter chores rather than wildfire, flames had raced across pastureland near the Gillespie–Blanco county line, roughly 30 minutes northeast of Fredericksburg. By the time firefighters declared the blaze contained shortly after midnight Monday, it had scorched an estimated 175 acres, pulled in air support and at least 16 fire departments, and left several fire trucks with what officials described as costly damage.

No homes burned, and no major injuries were reported. But for local fire and emergency officials, the most striking detail may have been the calendar.

“This was Feb. 8,” said one Gillespie County emergency official, summarizing the incident on social media. “We still have a moderate fire danger risk in play.”

A fast-moving fire in dormant winter grass

The brush fire, which began just before 2 p.m. Sunday near the 5000 block of Althaus Davis Road, grew quickly in the dormant winter grass that blankets much of the central Texas Hill Country. Initial estimates put the blaze at about 20 acres. Within two hours, pushed by dry conditions and wind, it had tripled in size.

Fredericksburg and Gillespie County emergency management officials said the fire expanded to more than 60 acres Sunday afternoon and to roughly 70 to 80 acres by early evening. Crews from at least 16 volunteer and municipal departments converged on the rural area, which is dotted with ranches, small subdivisions and patches of cedar and oak.

As the sun went down, Travis County’s STAR Flight aviation unit joined the fight. The STAR1 helicopter flew water-drop missions at the county line, dousing hot spots in the rugged terrain.

Round Mountain Volunteer Fire Department, based in Blanco County, later reported that crews stopped the fire’s advance at approximately 175 acres. In a post early Monday, the department said the blaze had been extinguished or fully contained sometime after midnight.

Officials credited the multiagency response — including local volunteer firefighters, county emergency management and regional mutual-aid partners — with preventing the fire from reaching homes and outbuildings.

Apparatus damage raises cost concerns for volunteer departments

Even so, the night took a toll. Fredericksburg/Gillespie County emergency management said “several apparatus from responding agencies” were damaged in the operation and would require “costly repairs.” For small volunteer departments that rely heavily on state grants and local fundraising to keep equipment running, a single incident can strain budgets for months.

The fire erupted in a patchwork of grass and brush typical of the Hill Country: rolling limestone hills, cedar breaks and freeze-cured pasture grasses that can ignite easily during dry, windy spells. That combination is increasingly on the radar of state fire officials, even in the heart of winter.

State warnings and disaster declaration underscore winter risk

In mid-January, the Texas A&M Forest Service warned that wildfire activity across the state was expected to rise this winter and spring as abundant vegetation from 2025 dried out.

“Wildfire activity across the state is expected to increase this winter and spring as above-normal levels of vegetation dry and become highly flammable,” the agency said in a bulletin. Officials described the so‑called dormant wildfire season, which runs through late winter and early spring, as a period “typically characterized by fire activity in freeze‑cured grasses and by increased wind speeds associated with passing dry cold fronts.”

From October 2025 through mid-January, the agency said it had already responded to hundreds of wildfires, an increase of about 136% over normal for that time of year. Forecasters with the Climate Prediction Center also have pointed to a La Niña pattern, which often brings warmer, drier-than-average conditions to much of Texas.

On Jan. 8, Gov. Greg Abbott renewed a disaster declaration covering numerous counties experiencing heightened fire danger, including Blanco and Gillespie.

“Increased fire weather conditions pose an imminent threat of property damage, injury, or loss of life,” Abbott wrote, authorizing additional state wildfire response resources for at-risk communities.

Burn bans, county lines, and the role of human activity

The Althaus Davis Road blaze also highlighted a more immediate factor in many Texas fires: human behavior in the wake of shifting burn bans.

In Blanco County, commissioners rescinded a countywide outdoor burn ban on Jan. 27 at noon. As of early February, the county’s website stated that no burn ban was in effect, although residents were instructed to call a nonemergency number before starting any fires.

Across the line in Gillespie County, officials had gone the other direction. On Feb. 2, six days before the fire, the county reinstated its burn ban, prohibiting most outdoor burning.

The Sunday fire burned along that jurisdictional seam, in an area where the legal status of outdoor burns can change within a few steps. It was not immediately clear on which side of the county line the fire started, and local officials have not publicly announced a cause.

The Texas A&M Forest Service estimates that nine out of 10 wildfires in Texas are caused by human activity, including debris burning, equipment use and roadside ignitions. In the Hill Country, several recent fires have been traced to escaped brush or trash burns.

In neighboring Burnet County, emergency officials raised alarms even before the latest blaze. On Jan. 30, Burnet County Emergency Services District No. 2 said in a public warning that since its own burn ban was lifted on Jan. 27, fire departments had “already responded to multiple out‑of‑control burns, resulting in approximately 130 acres burned in our area.”

“Fire resources are already being strained,” the district said. “One careless burn can put homes, firefighters, and lives at risk.”

A familiar warning for a growing wildland-urban interface

Fredericksburg and the surrounding Hill Country have seen that risk up close. In March 2025, the Crabapple Fire northwest of town burned nearly 10,000 acres, destroyed nine homes and 20 outbuildings, and forced evacuations. Two months later, the Reverse Fire east of Fredericksburg burned about 80 acres; investigators with the Forest Service determined that fire was caused by debris burning.

Those incidents helped spur new investments in wildfire response. The Texas A&M Forest Service recently broke ground on a wildfire response hub in Fredericksburg, a roughly $2.5 million facility intended to strengthen the state’s presence in the region.

At the groundbreaking, task force coordinator Randall Fuchs said the project represented “preparedness, collaboration, and a commitment to serving our community now and in the future.”

Local fire officials say that kind of capacity is increasingly important as the landscape changes. Blanco County Emergency Services District No. 2, which serves the southern part of the county, notes that about 87% of its 200‑square‑mile district is agricultural, wildland or undeveloped. But more ranches are being divided into 50‑ to 100‑home subdivisions, putting more people and property in what fire managers call the wildland-urban interface.

In that environment, even a 175‑acre fire that never reaches a home can be a warning.

By midday Monday, char lines and ash marked the route of the Althaus Davis Road blaze across pastures and cedar thickets. Fire engines that had rumbled into the night smoke were back at their stations, some sidelined for repairs.

The flames that drew a helicopter and dozens of firefighters vanished in less than 24 hours. For officials watching the weather, the dry grass and the calendar, the risk they represent is likely to linger much longer.