'Double Back Fire' burns 1,400 acres in Johnson County

GODLEY, Texas - A wildfire burning in Johnson County has grown to about 1,400 acres, and it's still a long way from being fully contained.

The firefight is similar to battles happening across the state. The Texas A&M Forest Service on Monday upgraded its readiness to respond.

"For the past week, we’ve sat around and watched every county around us have fires," said Jamie Moore with the Johnson County Emergency Management. "So it’s been like sitting on pins and needles really for a week." 

Until Sunday afternoon when a spark ignited a wildfire that’s burned 1,400 acres in Johnson County. 

"Right now, we have about 20 fire engines out on the fire line doing containment as well as four dozers that have been working since yesterday to get this fire contained," Moore said. 

Moore says departments from six different counties are helping. Plus, the Texas A&M Forest Service is providing aerial resources. 

The forest service calls it the ‘Double Back Fire.’

"It’s 1,400 acres of fire. That’s a lot of water," said Adam Turner with the Texas A&M Forest Service. "If you think about how much water it takes to put out a campfire, you can multiply that by 1,400 football fields and flames. Water, you couldn’t get enough water. You couldn’t drain Cleburne Lake or Possum Kingdom Lake fast enough to put out 1,400 acres of fire."

Turner says the Double Back is just one of 80 they've responded to in the last seven days.

"All of these grass, brush, trees, they’re all incredibly dry. We’ve had high temperatures, really low humidity," he said. "So they’re continuing to dry, and we’re expecting high winds over the course of the next week and had some this weekend. So all of that area is receptive and really ready for a fire. So all it takes is a single spark." 

In a tweet, the forest service says it’s increasing to a level 4 preparedness. 

Turner says this means it’s taking crews longer to put out fires and additional resources are needed to help local departments. 

"We have resources from U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management other state forest service agencies and our federal cooperators," Turner said.

At the front lines of the Double Back Fire, around 80 firefighters are working to contain it. People in the surrounding communities donated water, Gatorade and food.

With the heat index reaching 110 Monday, crews are rotating more often, which means more manpower. 

At the rehab center, firefighters come back from fighting the fire and have a choice of water or Gatorade, a cool rag for their neck or face to cool off. They can also put on this cooling vest, which has ice cold water running throughout so it can regulate body temperature in 15 to 20 minutes. 

"You may not see smoke anymore, but there is still a lot of smoldering out there and a lot of work left to be done," Turner said.

"Not only are we watching for containment here, but we’re watching for new starts to occur," Moore said. "And we’re hoping that doesn’t happen." 

The fire is 50% contained.

When it comes to containment, the forest service wants to be confident the fire won’t return. That’s why containment numbers rise slowly. 

With that in mind, crews may not get to 100% containment until Wednesday or Thursday.