By Anita Miller
Authorities say a child playing with a cigarette lighter likely started a blaze that destroyed some 500 acres west of Wimberley earlier this week.
According to Sgt. Leroy Opiela of the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, around 80 personnel from multiple jurisdictions had the fire about 75 percent under control late Monday.
Although flames crept so close to homes that around 15 were evacuated, no structures were lost, he said. “It was pretty well extinguished and has behaved all day,” Opiela said Tuesday evening.
He said the fire was located near the Lost Creek subdivision seven or eight miles west of FM 2325.
Fire crews responded from Wimberley, Oak Hill, Buda, Kyle, South Hays, Austin, South Hays and Travis County. Fixed-wing aircraft directed helicopters dropping buckets of water on the fast-moving fire.
Hays and all other Central Texas counties remain under burn bans.
To report a fire, call 911.
