RAW Video: Houses burn as fast-moving grass fire tears through Balch Springs neighborhood
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- Balch Springs, Mesquite, Dallas, and firefighters from several other cities battle a grass fire that caught close to a dozen houses on fire near Interstate 20 and South Beltline Road.
FOX 4 News is a FOX-owned station serving Dallas-Fort Worth and all of North Texas.
Sorry for the loss for these families. Fire command failed at this fire. I see no resources protecting exposures, nothing. Too little too late
Out-buildings two feet from wood-slat fences adjacent to pyro-ecosystem scrub? --You'd need retardant tankers dumping every fifteen seconds to keep a wildfire out of that division on a windy day. Place was built to burn.
My best friend’s house was completely destroyed by this fire. She, along with her parents and two year old son, lost everything. The only thing they have is the clothes they were wearing. Her house is the one repeatedly shown on the video (the one with a basketball hoop and the grill) the last house to burn next to the two story house. They are completely devastes by the loss of their home but are very thankful and blessed to be alive 🙏 God bless those affected by the fire ❤️
That’s sad
Sad, but God didn't bless them, he let everything they had be destroyed.
@@DaleDix I disagree. Although it is sad that they have lost their things, it is all materials that can be replaced. A life cannot be replaced. They have the support of friends and family who would do anything to help them get back on their feet.
@L_O_W_K_E_Y-G some did some don’t.
@L_O_W_K_E_Y-G you still around?
1:22 You can see a fire truck putting water on the ALREADY BURNED area... why the hell was there not a truck at the HEAD of the fire? In fact, why do you only see ONE truck there????
Same question I had. Why aren’t they protecting the structures?
It's so that the coals won't catch
wow, a pathetic response. Two ladders and an engine. I guess there are no firefighters in TX or something. This was a grass fire, not even brush. they lost like a dozen houses because their fences and sheds caught fire. I've seen better responses in towns of 50k people not major metro areas
That's what you get if you live in a country where no one whats to pay taxes.
@@macek7016 ignorant response.
Always a toad croaking in favor of mandatory protection-rackets.
A disgraceful performance by the fire brigade! One vehicle is constantly pointlessly watering the roof of a house instead of putting out the fires in the early stages of various houses before they spread to the houses.
The pickups put out the grass effectively, but wouldn't it make more sense to put out the fires in front of the houses first?!
Apparently nobody here has an overview or a concept of how to proceed effectively, although, as you can see, aerial observation is available.
that pointless vehicle you describe has accepted the others are lost and is keeping the ones unaffected wet so they dont go down with the rest!!!!!
@@xpoors6641 Wrong, it was likely one of the first crews on scene who were defending the first house threatened without having a view of the rest of the road due to smoke, etc. It's my opinion that that crew needed to be better directed and utilized. They also can't relocate ladder trucks instantaneously. For them to relocate would mean someone would have to deem that it would be worth losing their water for however much time it would take to resume. I definitely thing the circumstances of this fire warranted that effort. It looks like the lack of a central command is the major failure. However in the absences of a strong central command the brush truck crews could certainly have still seen where to better help protect the houses. Watering the grass instead of putting out the fence made no sense. Next was the complete lack of urgency of the firefighter who finally appears setting up to spray the fence line near the end of the footage. An entire row of houses is burning with more immediately threatened, and he could not have been any more casual than he was. There is no staggering or body language suggesting fatigue. The impression is he truly didn't care that much his paycheck was going to be the same apparently.
I type fast and their are just so many things to point out I just make these long comments rather than attempt to simplify the criticism without understating just how much failure is on display.
@@xpoors6641 There's smoke coming out of the roof; the fire's already inside. Dumping 1,000 gallons per minute through the ceiling only ensures that water damage will destroy anything the fire didn't.
Hardly "unaffected".
"A disgraceful performance by the fire brigade!"
-The only disgrace is your ignorance, let me explain...
"One vehicle is constantly pointlessly watering the roof of a house"
-If you had ANT clue what you are talking about you would have noticed that the ladder tower was actually covering four house...
-And not one of those were destroyed
-Which is also why the second tower was put where it was and started protecting those as well
"instead of putting out the fires in the early stages of various houses before they spread to the houses"
-WTH does that even mean?
-Tey that again but try to make sense
"The pickups put out the grass effectively, but wouldn't it make more sense to put out the fires in front of the houses first?!"
-Vegetation fires like this are fought from the black and upwind
-Doing otherwise is what gets firefighters killed
"Apparently nobody here has an overview or a concept of how to proceed effectively"
-No... just you
"although, as you can see, aerial observation is available"
-Yes they all carry portable TVs and can hack into microwave signals being transmitted back to the studio
Being a fire officer for 27 years, I feel command failed miserably at this fire. We have more resources show up for one house fire than they did for eight houses. Should have stopped the fence fire which spread to peoples sheds in the back yard which in turn spread to the homes. The grass fire trucks could have done that but they are in the field putting the grass out. Not good.
I'm not a fire officer and I thought the same thing. I was quite confident of my opinion even without expertise. I have fought and controlled fires that were dicey or that could have got away though. I think outdoor fires are largely common sense since their behavior is determined by wind and the fuel source in open space. I doubt I would ever confidently criticize how an interior structure fire was dealt with.
Burning grass alone is unlikely to ignite a structure, but blazing wooden fences is another story. It was so painfully obvious they could have attacked the fence and saved many of the homes and at least have prevented any from being a total loss.
The neighborhood looks like a nice neighborhood and seemed to be middle class if not upper middle class. Then on another story one home owner being interviewed was Hispanic and everyone else in the street during other coverage was black. I sure hope the failure wasn't influenced by a disregard for the neighborhood, but conveniently first responders are at their most incompetent when minorities are involved.
With this fire there was nothing heroic done nor required. There was plenty of room and options to mount a much more effective fight without ever placing a firefighter into the least bit of danger. I didn't criticize what I saw lightly, and I left open the possibility that I may have missed a dynamic, but your second to my opinion settles my opinion at this point.
@DigitalStyx. You’re assessment is 100 percent correct. An engine company with a chain saw and a hose line with a grass fire truck for back up could have stopped the fence fire and saved several homes.
I feel sorry for the people who lost so much. I have never let race or being a minority ever play a part in the decisions I have made. I am a Christian man and I believe everyone has a heart and soul and deserve to be treated to the best of our ability. Let’s face it, if you have to dial 911, chances are your not having a good day.
I work with a great bunch of men and women who are committed to what we do and we have a great command structure to make sure we have the resources needed for the best possible outcome of what we are facing. There are times when I saw smoke in the sky on the way to a house fire and I am already calling for a second alarm to bring more help. My thinking is, if you don’t need them, you can cancel and turn them around.
I was thinking the same exact thing command failed to deploy resources correctly or not at all. Even with the brush trucks not actively fighting the progressing fire on the fence near the houses. Instead they chasing fires in the field. Very Sad
@@bigln3706 Thank you for your service. I sure hope the minority status of the neighborhood did not weigh on this response but on top of the poor command and approach we both address, in the video once a firefighter finally brings a hose to the fence line behind houses not yet engulfed, he could not have moved much slower than he does in the video. I was paying attention to that part because he was next door to a yard with a dog in it who's fence was just beginning to go up.
That said, he really could not have moved with less urgency, but once the hose was blasting water he began to make quick work of the fence. Sadly, in addition to moving inexcusably slowly, he also made no effort to assess the attack. What I mean is he didn't look for where the houses were most threatened or even to see whether a house was starting to catch fire. He just started to spray down the fence section that landed in his way. I sure hope racism and/or bigotries did not influence this response, but my God it looks like they were doing the least they could do while addressing an unprecedented fire.
But I digress. I didn't set out to make race or ethnicity a talking point either. It's just the approach to this fire made so little sense. Once I discovered that it was apparently a minority neighborhood it was the only thing that made sense. Here's hoping that in truth the poor response was completely senseless and not sinister.
Again, thank you for your service, and for the record I have previously never doubted that fire fighters give their best to any fire without regard for the bio's of those affected. However this, on the heels of the Uvalde police response, begs me to ask What's going on with first responders in Texas? Another incident made exponentially more tragic by first responder incompetence at a majority hispanic school.
@@Tillermen1016 I didn't mention that detail, but that also caught my attention, that houses were burning and the brush trucks were focusing on open field. Obviously the entire fire needed to be extinguished, but why not start at the threatened structures then work your way out to protect dead grass? It was my hope while watching that perhaps off camera was more structures, but all that comes into view are some scrubby trees. It's my theory that the brush trucks were more concerned with avoiding a more difficult fire fight than with saving structures just like in Uvalde when the police were more concerned for themselves than for children who were bleeding out in a classroom.
I didn't want to believe the response was terrible. I didn't expect to judge the fire fighting effort at all, but the poor effort was impossible to overlook. There really should be an independent investigation of this response because something needs to be changed. Two dozen volunteers with garden hoses could have saved more homes.
Only one aerial water assault? That is nothing compared to the amount of exposure here. The fire departments receive an F for this one. Also given how dry much of Texas historically is, why no water or foam dropping planes? Texas surely must have those resources.
That's what you get if you live in a country where no one whats to pay taxes.
Yes because aircraft can instantly teleport themselves
Out-buildings two feet from wood-slat fences adjacent to pyro-ecosystem scrub? --You'd need retardant tankers dumping every fifteen seconds to keep a wildfire out of that division on a windy day. Place was built to burn.
@@macek7016 Always a toad croaking in favor of mandatory protection-rackets.
Very frustrating to see no air drops of water and few firemen protecting homes.
air drops are for forest fires. this fire looks like it started in someones backyard (maybe an unattended grill) and spread with the grass
Air drops take time to coordinate, and they aren't actually that helpful in fires in residential areas. But there SHOULD have been a MUCH larger response to this fire and it pisses me off to see that ONE truck just sitting there putting water on that ONE house that's "in the black". They should have had trucks dousing the fire at the HEAD of the fire (left side of screen) and Brush Trucks working behind the houses. Brush Trucks are those ones you see later in the video, spraying the fire line out in the field. Those should have been closer to the houses... structures are usually a priority... not open field.
Hahaha air drops hahaha to funny this what happens when God hates global warming
Prayers for all these families 🙏🏼
Yes because air tankers can instantly teleport themselves to fires
Very frustrating to see comments as ignorant as yours
All it takes is someone throwing out a lit cigarette on the interstate.
YUP 👍🤬
I can only imagine how devastating this was seeing it up close and personal. My heart was breaking for these families who lost everything, and for those who weren’t in town. I hope they had insurance because if they didn’t this will be a hard pill to swallow
Texas deserves this. It's an evil state.
airodriguez20078moago🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷
Homes are built cheap now days with cheap wood. I used to work for a home builder and they would use the cheapest materials. They burn down super fast.
This fire department has to be the worst of the worst. Total incompetence. They just let all of these houses catch fire. Infuriating to watch.
That's what you get if you live in a country where no one whats to pay taxes.
How were they incompetent?
@@virgilhilts3924 Watch the video you F______ fool? They did not save the houses!!!! That should have been their primary objective.
A home owner with a hose could have saved there house if been home
@@jhonsiders6077 They probably tried but were blocked from reaching their home by the authorities. The country has gone to the dogs!
I used to live in mesquite near the rodeo I know exactly where this is I'm just praying for all these people but they're able to find shelter and that God will give them strength to get through this extraordinary difficult time my family was had gone through that one I was 3 years old and I'm old now but I can still remember driving a to the fire something we never did and dad took us kids and our mom's shopping and we came home our house was burned to the ground completely and we had just had Christmas so everything was new you know how that goes it was heart-wrenching I remember it so well but so many people came to our defense and helped us through that time so praise the Lord and I pray for these people unbelievable unbelievable
Religious disease is hilarious.
Imaginary sky fairy nonsense.
Amen sis
I saw a dog in the backyard
They need to call in some help. Mesquite
@@bigrabyt I did too. I think they might have stopped the fire before it hit that yard. I've been looking for any news about loss of life of any kind and not finding anything yet.
Wow. This could have been avoided and minimized. Good gracious god bless those families.
..... it has been minimized ..... this happened in a very populated region of the biggest kindling box In North America if a fire was to start in a rural area with limited fire response California's wild fires would be a joke just like they where during Australia's country wide fire ....... I literally watched a bunch of wood burst into flames Goin down dallas north toll way today cause the sun reflecting off his back window of the truck and the wind ....... it tales absolutely nothing g to start a fire right now .....litteral could probably start a fire kicking the ground right now
It's interesting to note that this grass fire was enhanced and aided by the out buildings and wooden fences behind and between the houses carring massive flames to the structures themselves. I'm sure the home losses would have been much less if the fences were metal only and the out buildings were masonary structures or not there at all. A good lesson to be learned by home owners and insurers alike.
Don't blame the wooden fences and the out buildings. Blame the incompetent fire fighters. Why didn't they stop the grass fire from reaching these homes? Check the video. The field is still burning. WHY???????
@@billwdw04 Knobhead. You think this is the only fire they are attending with their massive numbers of firefighters they keep hidden in stations specially for that one fire to the exclusion of all others in the worst heat and drought in living memory? Not to mention water mains can only producexo much water. How many firefighters do you think you should have. How about YOU TAXPAYERS pay for let's say, one fire station per block manned by two to four watches of 12 firefighters manning two appliances AND then multiple large water mains on each street or construct a large open water supply and maintain it. Cost? Astronomical but if that's what you want then of course you'll gladly put your hands in your pockets to pay. Remember though mutual may well mean all those resources can and will be dragged away from your home's because there are similar problems elsewhere. As a 30 year firefighter I saw the problem immediately. Too few resources available on a VERY fast moving fire front. Far too fast to possibly save most of those properties. Fires like that are a logistical impossibility because you simply cannot gather the resources and deploy them fast enough even if they did, by some miracle have sufficient water for the fire. No fire service on God's earth could have saved those properties. So wind your bloody idiotic necks in give these folks the credit for working so hard with what water and equipment they had available to them on a very fast moving front. Better still if you are so bloody good at firefighting strategy and logistics get off your keyboards and go and sort it out with your magical wand.
@@Biffo1262 The truth is that it does not take a lot of men or equipment or water to wet the grass AHEAD of the grass fire. Also, have you ever heard of a "back fire ". Watch the video again, please, and point out even one fireman trying to stop the GRASS FIRE before the fire reached the first home. P.S. your feeble excuses for their incompetence are ridiculous.
@@billwdw04 grass fires are fast and this one probably was across the field before anyone called the firefighters
@@billwdw04
It's hard to believe you are truly this ignorant, but here you are proving it yet again
So sad to watch this devastation. My heart goes out to all the families who lost their homes. Love from UK xx
It’s so sad
My Aunt lost everything. Thank god she is ok.
Crazy to see that thoses wood fences are spreading the fire to the houses. Crazy to think that steel fences, concrete sheds with metal roof and concrete backyard would have saved most houses.
Where is the resources to fight this fire.
God bless these families losing their homes.
@AK-47 what about it?
@AK-47 What on earth has that got to with the lack of firefighting resources?
the city failed all those home owners when they should of been working their way down the fire line
I guess they were not allowed from the Union, maybe the smoke was too thick.
It is the worst fire department I have ever seen, the ladder truck bathing a house that had no fire, while other houses that had just started the fire, did not put it out in time, very unfortunate, I feel sadness for those families who lost everything
I think it takes a lot of time to relocate the truck,smaller more mobile would be more helpful maybe.
That’s almost the whole neighborhood. Now my page
W T F is going on here? The fire department has 2 hoses on a single house, that is in the clear, and they are ignoring the front line of the fire. This is massive FD incompetence. Who owns that one house?
Exactly my thought. Instead of focussing on the one house, they could have gone to the area in the bottom left corner of the video and start dousing the edges of the fire, preventing it from spreading further along the fence line towards untouched houses. But no let's instead spray water on a house from so high up most of it already evaporated before it hit the house or the ground.
@L_O_W_K_E_Y-G thats what training and pre planning is for
I think some brush fire tactics training is in order. No disrespect to the hard working firefighters but someone calling the shots did not position crews effectively
So awful. My heart goes out to these folks. No one deserves this. This is a time for the real strength of the human spirit and despite the immense losses, the light of their strength and hope will shine bright again. Life is more precious than all things.
Oh no! We're in South Mesquite and saw the smoke, but we never even considered that it could be this big. I pray that everyone is okay.
Why aren't there more firefighters? They should be fighting this at every house and at all edges of the grass!
I agree
All they need is money and permission from whoever doles out our tax dollars…
Our city has 8 firefighters on duty each day. Mutual aid was requested as soon as the trucks got there.
I am wondering where is the fire department? There must be a reason there are so few firefighters. If one of these was my home and I was there, I would be on the roof with a garden hose.
meanwhile firemen are spraying water on areas already burned out while the fire rushes towards fresh homes.....
These firefighters are absolutely useless.
Do the pilots hear that beep all the time ? I'd lose my mind
Red state where first responders get hero status by default. Competence not required. I cannot believe this is the best response the department had, and it looks like spreading resources to attack the fence line might have saved many more of these homes. The ladder truck just stays with the first group of houses while letting the inferno engulf the rest of the street unchecked. The fence both slowed the fire's progression and intensified the fire. They should have been doused as a priority, but in Texas no one ever leads a response with a big picture perspective apparently. Whether losing twenty homes, twenty kids...whatever, they still get a paycheck and parades in Texas.
Obviously you have no idea what you're talking about so don't, didn't see you there fighting it nor do you anything about what resources we had out there not to mention how fast it moved.
@@andrewbuckholt9680 and you still can't actually defend against the points being made from what the video shows. I guess you just hope to win the opinions of the simple-minded at least since the rest is very clearly self-evident.
My point is in the video there seems to be plenty of resources to attack the most critical part of the fire which was the fence line. Apparently there was no one in command assessing the bigger picture. The ladder truck crew probably could not see past the smoke but maybe that's what you mean by resources. Perhaps the chief couldn't wrap up his golf game fast enough to transition from fire truck to fire department on scene? You are right. We are only assessing the physical assets of fire fighters and equipment on scene. Maybe you point is that doesn't mean any qualified crews were available to put it to use. The video doesn't tell us what could have been done if the fire department had been given an advance notice. Before we judge them we should see how amazing they did at their last drill!!
It's not the department's fault they couldn't handle this better. The circumstances weren't fair and the whole thing was a blind side
I'm not following these comments only these pathetic replies I get notified of. I have made it clear that a proper defense if this response should be made point by point from the video just as we who criticize it have done.
The "you weren't there" is child's play which can be expected when first responders are defended by default with no results necessary.
@@andrewbuckholt9680 Well, I know what I'M talking about. How? My son-in-law is a volunteer firefighter that has been fighting countless wildfires ever since March up here in Oklahoma. He watched this video and said that the Brush trucks that were out in the field were being mis-resourced. They SHOULD have been on the fenceline attempting to stop the spread from fence to fence (and ultimately the houses and backyards that would be MUCH harder to fight). Structures ALWAYS take priority over an open field when you have few resources - as they appeared to have few in the beginning 20 minutes of this video. But the 2 brush trucks you see out in that field were not staged correctly... at **least** one of them should have been on the leading edge by the fence line. Not only to attempt to stop the spread toward structures, but also to report to command what was happening on that end.
You can defend them all you want, but this WAS mishandled. I'm assuming this is "metro Dallas"? There's no excuse for why there couldn't be a larger response, if that's the case. But that is purely an assumption on my part. The fact remains that the resources that were there, could have done better - which I'm sure they will discover in the after-incident debriefing. But if I was one of those homeowners - I'd be suing the city.
@@digitalstyx_est.2018 agreed -after 911 -the "thank me for my service" mentality seemed to creep in -terrible strategy and tactics are on full display here and yet the fire gods seem to think excuses like you werent there are valid reasons for weak performance
@@slackjawedyokel1 I can take this a little further too. I am older than my Avi pic suggests to people. I have never before in my life criticized a fire department's response to anything based on video footage or otherwise. Our heatwave in Oklahoma plus how closely I have been following the drought out west caused me to be curious of just how bad Texas was getting to have such a horrible fire.
So no, I'm not an expert, but I also didn't arrive as a fire fighter critic. We have a grass fire season here too. This many structures don't get lost to something that burns a few acres of grass. This level of loss comes from fires that escape containment or get fueled into fire nados, etc. If this many structures were lost to a fire in Oklahoma (which happens to be a red state too a strike against my orig comment) then it would be self-evident to all that their resources were overwhelmed beyond anything that was reasonable to have at the ready. Federal emergency level stuff is what it takes to lose and leave heavily damaged so many homes.
So I came expecting to see an extreme weather phenomenon and saw a very small amount of acreage burned while a fence was allowed to torch homes untouched. It was a windy day which actually indicates the response time itself was probably perfectly fine. The Uvalde comparison fits here too as this seems to be a command failure with the exception of near the end of the footage, the firefighter that finally brings a hose into the back yard of the second to last home was moving inexcusably slow. There was zero urgency. He wasn't staggering around from fatigue. It was literally just a casual thing to him that an entire row of homes was ablaze.
I digress. I expected to be making a simple couple of points. Needless to say I didn't stretch myself thin to criticize the response. It was so self-evident I haven't even run out of points to make in defense of my criticism. There is no joy in it either. I hate for those people to lose their homes, and I would be mad as hell if I lost mine and that was the response. That community needs to see if the next time there is an emergency if they couldn't just bring out the equipment and let the residents save their own homes. 10 out of 10 common folks handed a firehose would have rushed to that fence line with it as the obvious way to save their homes. It's terrible.
For those wishing to actually learn something instead of just reading the idiocy spouted by the YT Pretend Firefighter Brigade...
This fire was started by a large tractor mower cutting brush along the highway, apparently the blades hit some metal pipes hidden in the brush causing sparks which ignited the grass.
This FD had a total of 8 firefighters on this shift and immediatly responded with an engine, a ladder, and a rescue. In the approximately 8 minutes it took them to arrive after the initial call, the fire had spread from the highway to the fence line at the closest corner, a distance of about 800 feet. This due to the sustained 20-25 mph winds driving the flames and spreading embers.
The crew decided to set up at the corner seen in the video as that was the closest flame front to the homes, they chose to try and use the ladder pipe as they could swing it around that entire corner from the one location. The engine grabbed a hydrant in the corner to feed the ladder pipe as well as hand lines, the crew made this their Alamo. Between the ladder and the handlines they were able to save all eight homes on that corner in the immediate path of the fire, as well as several across the street as embers were being blown over their heads and landing in yards and on roofs starting spot fires.
Upon arrival/assessment they also immediately called for mutual-aid from surrounding departments, equipment & personnel were sent from five agencies to help. One of the first FDs to arrive and help took the same approach as the first and set up their ladder & engine to the east past the T intersection. Their ladder and crews with handlines staved off the flames now encroaching on those fences & yards, they managed to save all of those houses as well.
Now many are popping off saying "Why didnt they move those trucks further east and save those houses!!!!? Well for several reasons... The first being that the original protected homes were still in danger, there were numerous spot fires and roofs kept reigniting as can be CLEARLY seen in the video. If they had moved those houses would have been unprotected and likely burn. The other reason is that you cannot easily just pickup hose and move it 800+ feet in the blink of an eye, especially after the crews were already exhausted from fighting off the flames for the last 45 minutes in triple digit heat. Packing up all those lines, moving everything, and setting back up would take easily 30 minutes... WITH A FRESH CREW. Not to mention that they know additional help was on the way, so a move would be foolish.
And if folks pay attention, not long after the halfway point in this video you can see an additional ladder & engine arriving on the west end of the street and start setting up. Not to mention multiple brush trucks starting to hit the grass fire, other crews arriving and setting up, even a front end loader starting to work the fireline with their bucket. Another comment I see being made is about the "idiot firefighters not attacking the leading edge of the fire". Well the answer is simple... directly fighting a wildland fire from the front on such a windy day is how you injure/kill firefighters. You always fight such fires in such conditions "From the black", in other words, from the areas already burned. That way you dont get caught standing in fresh fuel directly in the fire path.
To those being critical... stop making fools of yourselves as clearly you have not the slightest idea what you are talking about
Very good information, I still stand with what I said that a handline operation would have allowed for much more flexibility. Your note about operating from the black I agree with but if the fire had already hit the east corner could the brush trucks have been moved into position from that location allowing them to move along the fence line operating from the black? I kind of figured as mentioned in my original post that this was driven by lack of manpower but when your limited it seems there were some poor decisions made. I'm from NY where we routinely use full on Stump Jumpers in deep woods wild fires and it seems a more aggressive approach may have made a difference. It's sad that only a 1 and 1 response was available for the initial alarm until mutual aid arrived.
@@andrewcraig5689 One tactic for brush trucks that works well in the light flashy fuels (field fires) is for the lead truck to basically just darken it down by moving fairly rapidly (but safely) down the flank (in the black) while the second truck (engine) follows up killing it cold -- they could have gotten up to the head far quicker
Prayers
So sad. I live near of Dallas. God bless those families.
ONE ladder truck at the end of the road. Should have been TEN in the middle. And suckers like me will pay for this in Buffalo NY with higher insurance premiums next year
🙏 For All those people who lost their homes.
Where is the fire department? Only one clumsy waterhose. Could have easily saved few houses from left side, but hosing only that one house, which is in middle of that. What clumsy fire department over there..
That's crazy that looks like someone threw a cigarette out the window off the street in the grass caught on fire
That was my first and only comment somebody threw a cigarette out the door because it came from the highway oh that's the way they were describing it when I heard actually heard somebody talking ABC was talking about it and I'm going there was a cigarette I mean why would any stupid person do that
I really hope someone got those dogs out of the backyard
Same here...saw that black dog...please let them have gotten them out of there, helpless in the backyard ❤❤
Good grief, a disaster
A lot of that could have been prevented with just fire beaters!
Always one idiot.
I could not tolerate that sound! What were you thinking!?
One grass truck deployed here would have saved the majority of these houses. One pickup with a crew of two. I have no idea what this command was doing, and clearly they don't either.
So sorry for those families.
I lost my house sadly currently staying at a shelter
I’m one of them 😢😢
@@yopablo4711 Sorry to hear that. At least now you know how the taxes you pay are NOT being spent.
0:00 GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK
(my school had a drill yesterday and i was away from everyone with the doors locked and closed, so i ran into another teachers office who she had happened to be locked out too, until someone came and unlocked the doors telling us it’s a drill but i thought it was a school shooting or a fire or smthn 😭
Builder note to self; No timber fence , No oil based roofing products , sprinkler system at rear boundary.
Fast moving fire, slow moving Fire Departments. A few lines in the black at the Head of this fire could have saved a lot of homes. That tower was useless.
I agree on that one.
I agree. Or, wet the grass ahead of the grass fire. Or, start a backfire. Or, put out the fence fires before they become house fires.
That tower saved six homes directly, and prevented the fire from spreading further
As did the second tower that directly saved multiple others
It's sad that you so ignorant yet babbling like you have a clue
Does this community only have one fire truck? These houses could have been saved.
There were at least 10-12 pieces of equipment there... try not making yourself look so ignorant
More trucks show up in NYC to a false alarm than did to this entire scene. This is why sprawl is so bad.
We need a good rain real bad in dfw
Wow all those high taxes and one fire truck?? Fire department fail!! Unacceptable
There were at least 10-12 pieces of equipment there... try not making yourself look so ignorant
@@virgilhilts3924 how many were spraying water? Who’s ignorant
@@caseycolburn3611
The one asserting there was only "one fire truck"... aka YOU 🤣
Again, try not making yourself look so ignorant
Why was the fire department not fighting the fire on the front edge near the houses ,this is an epic fail
this is why you do not have grass back yards and wood fences if you live in fire country - their own fault
Hopefully no one stayed behind thinking they’re inevitable or trying to save their homes. If you become SURROUNDED by these fires, there is NO escape…not to mention the immense amount of smoke. Hoping everyone made it out safely. I’ve never lost a home, but I’ve lost EVERYTHING before…it can ALL be REPLACED.
Inevitable? Is that the correct word?
There are literally people standing on the front lawns watching the fire. The "no escape" claim on this one is total BS. This isn't a crown fire in a forest. A lot of those homes would not have been lost if even a garden hose was in use when it hit the rear wooden fence.
"Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?"
I live in the neighborhood
God bless you and your neighbors
Fue un dia muy feo , pensando que nuestra casa seria la proxima 😭 Dios ayude alas personas que perdieron todo 🙏🙏🌹
I never seen anything like this within the metroplex. Wow, I used to stay over in this area. This is terrible. I guess it's not just a California thing anymore
In CA it would have been in heavy brush going twice as fast with much bigger flames and they would have had 150 firefighter on it not 20.
The dog at 17:48 omg I hope you guys rescued him or her instead of filming I see people on the ground I hope the dog made it out 🙏
I hope too ... Poor dog
Good grief, you couldn't turn off that horrible sound before uploading? I would have turned my sound off, but I kept waiting to see if you'd actually REPORT something.
A stick is next to worthless in this kind of scenario.. colossal waste of water. Lines on the ground is what's needed, 1 inch boosters @40 gpm would have saved most of these homes. The brush trucks were out in the middle of the field?
The audio made this unwatchable
3:57 willing to bet this fire was started by someone tossing a cig from the car/truck
That's not how fire moves from dry weather 😒 or from brush or embers. Because fire doesn't move in straight lines on fences and metal poles. Something magnetic or electrical current has to have an effect 🤔 on its movement. Watch closely 👀.
Illuminati
It's called wind... not everything is a conspiracy you scrub.
@@Nox_Eternis Believe what you want.
Damn. Close to home for me, but the whole world's on fire. UV rays are hotter than ever in history.
True
@AK-47 3 sun system. Check out Catfishz Corner and start with oldest video.
Hope the dog at 17:46 got out alright
The video was better without the sound effects.
How much longer is the fire brigade going to wet that one house when the fire is burning down all the other houses 😡
True. That is otter incompetence. That much water could have stopped the fire if they had tried to stop it. That fire department needs to find some qualified/trained fire fighters.
@@billwdw04
"That is otter incompetence"
Are you printing an RTTY weather map at the same time ?
The fire department wasnt at the front line of the fire. W T F
We're in the hell are all the firefighters they're all down at the end the fires just about out down there..
Wood fences in high brush areas should not be allowed. Watching this video it is the fences going up in flames that is starting most of the houses on fire.
Usless. Firemen not making much effort to put the fires out. Typical
How do you mean?
@@virgilhilts3924 wot do you mean how do you mean. Are you on planet earth watch the VID
@@jeffcon1uk985
Ahh so you cannot logically support your assertion
Wow, I know this was a year ago, but the fire dept. seems concerned only about one house at the top. Could this be the chiefs house or relatives????
Bad tactical attack. Should have moved into the burn with brush trucks
Sad that your comments are so ignorant
What started the fire?
Wow fire dept needs to have a review done on training
Why is that?
The Cities need to invest more in firemen and trucks, because there is no excuse for letting houses burn like this.
More firemen like these boobs would not have helped much. One quality fireman with a 2 inch hose could have stopped the grass fire and saved many homes. HINT: put out the grass fire and save the homes.
Damn. I passed by when it was still a small fire. Saw some fire fighters just walkn around it. i though it was contained, if not i would have peed on it :-(
This is by far the worst Fire Fighting response I have ever had the misforture to seen. The ladder fighting the fire is in the wrong place and the 2 fire tenders in the field should be fighting the fire as close to the main fire as possible and work back from that. I am so angry. Complete incompenence.
The fire services out there suck for sure.
Why is that?
Why were there so few firetrucks on the scene? There were two engines on one side of the street while the fire continued to spread down the other way. I've seen more fire trucks show up to a fender bender.
The fire trucks are being cleaned and polished for a parade next weekend. That's what they do more than they fight fires. They don't want to get the trucks dirty. The people that lost their homes are proud of the firefighters. NOT.
There are over a dozen pieces of equipment on site. This town has 8 firefighters per shift, an engine, a ladder, and a rescue. All of the other equipment responded from neighboring towns. Stop making yourself look so foolish.
@@virgilhilts3924, Not sure asking these questions makes anyone look foolish. One thing is clear, the fire department is not large enough to handle brush fires in today's climate. So, even if the fire fighters did everything right, that still means it needs to be analyzed so lessons can be learned.
But that being said, there seems to be criticism of how the resources were distributed too. You may think it's acceptable to just sweep everything under the rug, but I'm thinking the people whose homes burned down do not agree with you. Perhaps they did everything rigth in the best way possible, but that can only be determined by post analysis of the response.
@@Chris-Christopher-
"Not sure asking these questions makes anyone look foolish"
-I didn't say a word about any question
"One thing is clear, the fire department is not large enough to handle brush fires"
-Why would you assume such?
"in today's climate"
-As opposed to yesterday?
-What does that even mean?
"So, even if the fire fighters did everything right, that still means it needs to be analyzed so lessons can be learned"
-By YT armchair commandos who have ZERO experience in firefighting and do not even know what they are looking at?
"there seems to be criticism of how the resources were distributed too"
-By YT armchair commandos who have ZERO experience in firefighting and do not even know what they are looking at?
"You may think it's acceptable to just sweep everything under the rug"
-Sweep exactly what under a rug
"but I'm thinking the people whose homes burned down do not agree with you"
-Unless they are trained experienced firefighters their opinion is irrelevant
-Further, as for my statement and whether or not they might "agree", it isn't up for debate...
-It is an irrefutable fact how many pieces of equipment the department has and that other agencies sent mutual-aid
"Perhaps they did everything rigth in the best way possible, but that can only be determined by post analysis of the response"
-Okay. lets hear your expert analysis based on your vast experience and training in firefighting...
Easy to judge when you were no there. Tell me what equipment they had available and how you would have done it different. Be very specific now, you know, since you are an expert
Ok -the field fire was basically a flanking fire -the 2 brush trucks could have worked in tandem with the first quickly knocking down the bulk with the 2nd behind --- the quint appears to have caught a plug -so instead of wasting water on a roof , could have operated as an engine with a progressive hose lay down the fence line -and if any of the truckies were not needed , you would be surprised at how effective taking a pike pole and jerking down the fence would be. This is from viewing a video , if on scene, I am sure I would have more detailed advise.
If I lived there and was in that situation, I would run my sprinklers, 3 hours each zone
why is there only onr truck fighting the fire ? mulitple houses are burning and one line fighting it.
You should go get your eyes checked
My neighborhood 🥺🥺
Kudos to the brave Texas firefighters! The location is Broadview Dr.~Bearcreek Dr.
You are very right.
Do they not have a water supply in this part of the world? Looks like that fire started in a confined area and then spread slowly towards those houses. What stopped them getting water onto it in the early stages?
That brush truck should have been spraying closer to the homes rather than worrying about putting the field out. Extinguish near the fence line and work your way towards the field.
As windy as it was, I have no concerns or criticism about how the fire reached the fence-line. In my opinion, I think the response time was probably pretty good. It's in the department's interest on a hot day to move fast and keep a grass fire small rather than waste a single moment and have to be in the field a day or more instead.
There was a command breakdown on this. There is just no other way for a response to be so poor that every honest person viewing it has to say so regardless of their expertise or however much they want to support first responders by default. I point out in another reply how in addition to the apparently lack of a central command there are some obviously poor decisions and actions being made by the brush truck crews and an individual firefighter later.
The truck I personally defend is the ladder truck. It was being put to poor use by remaining so long on the first houses, but they were blinded by smoke. Moving that truck would mean several minutes of losing a large amount of water on the fire. That needed to be someone else's call who was assessing the fire fight as a whole. I know from other reports that the smoke was blacking out the view past the fire, more than the view from the chopper suggests. That said, I think someone on foot near the ladder truck could have likely been able to determine the first two structures were safe. So perhaps as a crew they still failed as they definitely had boots on the ground who could have helped them assess and maximize their effort. I guess I defend the guy in the ladder. He was spraying water where he last knew it was needed with no way on his own to be sure where the need had moved to. Everything else is so pathetic, pointless rants in comments are the least I can do to release the disbelief and irritation at the ineptitude.
Somewhere common people need to catch a break from the ultra rich, from politicians, and from being failed by public institutions due to the lack of accountability that's possible with tax money....grrr None of these homes should have been a total loss or damaged to the point that a family needed to stay somewhere else even a single night. Scorched porches, ruined fence, perhaps a lost outbuilding, but nothing more than heat damage to rear exterior of the homes themselves in my opinion. That's how major I think the failure was.
@@digitalstyx_est.2018
You have literally no clue what you are talking about
@@virgilhilts3924 Then educate me from the video that I watched. You'd be the first to do that. The consensus from people with common sense and open eyes is that this attack was horribly incompetent. I'm ok with being wrong and my opinion is unmoved by people who attempt baseless insults.
@@digitalstyx_est.2018
I presented no insult, I stated an obvious fact
At least turn off the sound! >:-(
Great
The houses burned for lack of coordination of the firefighters....yes, a fire like this with undergrowth has to be fought right next to the dwellings.
This was a small town (slow deployment of resources because they had to come from a distance), and understaffed (not enough personnel to deploy lines). Need some more training in WUI fires. As ALL of us should be doing. This (WUI fires) can handle in every state of the country.
frustrating isnt it ? Why structure guys are given minimal training on wildfire behavior is beyond me,
Interesting, there are no actions taken to avoid spreading the fire to the houses, no water? No people who can do anything?
so NONE of the neighbors picked up water hoses to help fight the fire....
The FD response was somewhat underwhelming. One house after the other was allowed to catch on fire, even though stretching a couple of lines into the backyards would have prevented the fire from spreading along the entire fenceline, and then to the sheds and houses. Instead, the fire was left to rage unchecked, apparently due to an apalling lack of resources. Only 25 minutes into the video they finally got around to doing the obvious. That was at least 25 minutes too late.
THOSE WOODEN FENCE PANELS JUST LIKE MATCH STICKS !!
Jesus Christ…. Let’s attack the fire by the road instead of the leading edge by the houses being threatened. 🤦🏻♂️
Why is the feild crew working the wrong end of the fire ?
What are you talking about?
Can someone please explain the lack of water flow on this fire?
Well no... but that is only due to the fact that from the moment the video started they were pumping thousands of gallons a minute onto the fires and the numbers continued to increase the entire time.
Used to be a saying "Fight The Fire Back". Start at the leading edge and push it back to the source were there is less fuel. May have helped here. Home owners ahead should have been out in force with their garden hoses.
Is this a one-fire-truck town?
Lack of hydrants, firetrucks or both? Tax issue?
lack of proper training
What caused this fire?
sorry for all who lost their homes!! But hard to watch as there was nobody trying to stop the fire. It looked like is was going very slow and could have been stopped. Why they let it just keep creeping along is frustrating to watch. one bulldozer could have stopped grass and some water could have save the last couple houses