{"id":424897,"date":"2026-09-03T09:58:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424897\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:58:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:58:34","slug":"tire-blowout-sparks-ross-wildfire-across-two-counties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424897\/","title":{"rendered":"Tire blowout sparks Ross wildfire across two counties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ross wildfir_fitted.jpeg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"A North Richland Hills firefighter stands near burning vegetation amid efforts to put out the Ross Wildfire, which has burned more than 90,000 acres of land.\" alt=\"A North Richland Hills firefighter stands near burning vegetation amid efforts to put out the Ross Wildfire, which has burned more than 90,000 acres of land.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        A North Richland Hills firefighter stands near burning vegetation amid efforts to put out the Ross Wildfire, which has burned more than 90,000 acres of land.<\/p>\n<p>            North Richland Hills Fire Department via Facebook<\/p>\n<p>The Ross wildfire currently scorching two North Texas counties was caused by a tire blowout, officials with the Texas A&amp;M Forest Service have determined.<\/p>\n<p>The fire has consumed more than 90,000 acres in Palo Pinto and Jack counties as of Wednesday, according to its tracking webpage on the <a href=\"https:\/\/app.watchduty.org\/i\/117036\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch Duty alert platform.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTexas A&amp;M Forest Service Law Enforcement, working in coordination with local law enforcement agencies, have \u2026 determined the cause of the Ross Fire was human-caused,\u201d officials with the forest service said. The start of the fire was traced to equipment used during a tire blowout.<\/p>\n<p>Officials with the Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District reminded the public <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=122192151974851886&amp;set=a.122097661064851886\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in a Facebook post<\/a> Wednesday evening that \u201chuman-caused\u201d does not mean the fire was intentionally set.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe appreciate the work of the investigators who worked to determine the origin and cause of this historic wildfire,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n<p>Crews fighting the fire took an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100064912261347\/videos\/pcb.1508104571363271\/1348470170511643\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">innovative approach<\/a> Monday, using ground vehicles to apply a fire retardant typically dropped from airplanes, according to a post on the forest service\u2019s Facebook page. Firefighters applied the chemical along 4.5 miles of Highway 16 between Highway 254 and Red Bluff Road.<\/p>\n<p>The approach allowed firefighters to place a \u201cholding line\u201d of retardant in areas with dense vegetation, narrow roadways and other hazards that could have complicated aerial operations, according to the post. The \u201cholding line\u201d will slow or stop the spread of the fire if it should intensify unexpectedly.<\/p>\n<p>The ground application was the first of its kind in Texas firefighting history, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The fire was 38% contained as of Wednesday evening, according to the Watch Duty platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A North Richland Hills firefighter stands near burning vegetation amid efforts to put out the Ross Wildfire, which&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-424897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}