Firefighters spend Fourth of July weekend battling blazes

The Fourth of July weekend may normally be the time for cookouts and fireworks, but local firefighters had to spend it battling two separate wildfires which consumed a total of more than 300 acres in Guadalupe and Gonzales counties.

Some two dozen agencies were called out at 4 p.m. Saturday, July 2, to a blaze which burned about 293 acres off Dix Road near Nixon Road in eastern Guadalupe County, not far from the Gonzales County northwest of Belmont.

The cause of the Dix Road fire remains under investigation. It threatened four buildings in the area, but with the help of the Texas A&M Forest Service, which used its bulldozers to put up containment lines, as well as air crews which dumped retardant and water from air tankers and a helicopter, the blaze was brought under control for the most part by Sunday night. It was reported fully contained at 1:54 p.m. Monday, July 4.

A Gonzales road and bridge crew helped dig containment lines while firefighters from Gonzales, Ottine, Nixon and Belmont all fought the fire.

A second fire, the Tres Dias fire, consumed nearly 11 acres east of Gonzales near the intersection of County Road 351 and County Road 352 east of Mitchell Creek on Sunday, July 3. Responding crews were able to get that blaze under full control by 10:27 p.m. Sunday.