North Texas terrain and climate differ significantly from Southern California’s, but the possibility of wildfires in the Tarrant County area that are as destructive as those in Los Angeles cannot be ruled out, according to Luke Kanclerz, head of the Texas A&M Forest Service Predictive Services Department.
Open areas and prairies surrounding Fort Worth contain the most potential for fires to become catastrophic natural disasters, said Kanclerz. The westernmost portion of Fort Worth is under careful watch in the summers due to its high number of undeveloped subdivisions, said Fort Worth Fire Department spokesperson Craig Trojacek.
Areas densely populated with drier grasses, such as the juniper plant and bluestem grasses — native to North Texas — provide more leeway for a fire to spread, according to Kanclerz. Fort Worth and Palo Pinto County are some of those areas. About 70 miles west of Fort Worth, Palo Pinto County is home to rocky terrain and dry grasses — and the first new state park in North Texas in two decades. This terrain acts as fuel for wildfires as the landscape is more difficult for first responders to access and navigate.
Post oak trees are the most common tree species in Texas and can be found throughout Fort Worth. This species also contributes to a higher risk of fast spreading fire activity due to its dry, easily ignitable leaf and bark, according to Kanclerz.
North Texas is no stranger to catastrophic fires, Kanclerz added. While Fort Worth’s infrastructure allows first responders to more easily contain blazes, North Texas has an extensive history of high-impact fires.
He pointed to the 1996 fires in Poolville, where the biggest blaze consumed 25,600 acres worth of land and destroyed 65 homes. At the time, Poolville — an hour northwest of Fort Worth — had a population of 230 people, according to archives.
Several fires that occurred between 2005 and 2022 in Texas contributed to what is known as a Southern Plains Wildfire Outbreak — fires accelerated by weather phenomena that occur when wildfires are sparked by dry conditions in areas with low humidity and above average surface. Among those natural disasters included the April 2009 PK Complex Fire in Palo Pinto County, where 126,734 acres were scorched and 168 homes were lost.
The July 2022 fire in Balch Springs is one of those disasters where grasses in undeveloped areas fueled fire activity, said Kanclerz. Nine of the 26 homes touched by the fire were destroyed.
“It doesn’t take a large fire to produce a high impact when you have a densely populated area,” said Kanclerz. “(North Texas) has had several very high impact fires that have burned down many structures, impacting the communities.”
The Southern Plains Wildfire Outbreak closely resembles the chain of fires scorching Los Angeles County, producing multiple fires that are highly resistant to fire-suppression efforts, said Kanclerz.
Aside from terrain, the possibility of wildfires in North Texas and Fort Worth is contingent on the climate, particularly humidity levels.
I had no idea about those fires. I’ve mentioned the Bastrop fires from 2011 before, as those were quite devastating, but I’d forgotten about the enormous Panhandle fires from March of last year, which were much bigger geographically. Seems to me one key difference between our experience and California’s is that our biggest fires have not been particularly close to major population centers. That could have been different for the Panhandle fire, as they were approaching Amarillo but were contained by a well-timed snowstorm. There were some moderate ancillary effects of that fire, which again could have been worse. I guess what I’m saying is, we’ve been lucky so far. At some point, we won’t be. I hope we’re ready when that happens.
Sure would suck for North TX if FEMA is eliminated.
Critical to assessing wildfire risk is the land-use categorized as WUI, the wildland urban interface. Should a summer even worse than the one of 2011 occur, it’s not difficult to imagine vast swaths of Harris and Montgomery Counties being at very high risk.
https://texaswildfirerisk.com/the-wildland-urban-interface.