Truck’s engine trouble sparks 50-acre fire

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

An industrial vehicle malfunctioned and caused a grass fire that burned nearly 50 acres on Tuesday evening.
According to County Fire Marshal Jeff Wright, the vehicle was driving toward Lockhart on FM 20 E when it began leaking burning fluids. When the fluids made contact with the dry grass near the highway, they ignited

a fire that stretched just over one highway mile.
Six fire companies, including three volunteer departments from Caldwell County and the Texas Forest Service, battled the blaze.
“There were a few places where it got back behind the fenceline,” Wright said on Wednesday morning. “But mostly, we were able to keep it from going back into the brush too much.”
The hardest-hit property was a tract of land just east of FM 1854. The property is owned by a relative of Herb and Teresa Sladek, who use the property for grazing cattle.
Sladek had moved his herd to another location to prepare them for auction just hours before the fire, he said.
Wright noted that at least four fire trucks broke down and had to be taken off the scene.
“They did a good job, but it”s hard to do this with what the volunteers have to work with sometimes,” he said. “Those four trucks are going to be out of service for a while, but I”m sure they”ll have them up and running as soon as they can. In the meantime, people just need to be really careful.”
This fire was the fourth major grass fire battled by Caldwell County firefighters in the last week.