Update 2:30 pm - The Limpia Canyon Fire outside of Fort Davis is now contained, according to Jim Fowler with the Fort Davis Fire Department. Crews will still be working to clean up the burned areas and any hot spots that remain.
Rain on Sunday and high humidity Sunday night helped calm the wildfire that started after a lightning strike in Limpia Canyon west of Fort Davis. The fire was called in around 3 pm yesterday, and initially spread quickly toward homes in the Davis Mountains Resort (DMR.)
"We had some problems yesterday afternoon that kind of scared us," says Jim Fowler with the Fort Davis Volunteer Fire Department.
"It was running pretty fast in the heavy grass up to the DMR."
The fire was burning at about 150 acres Sunday night, and remained burning Monday morning but was not spreading rapidly. Not much smoke was seen from the McDonald Observatory, just north of where the fire was burning.
By 10:30 am on Monday, crews had managed to put out the fire's southwestern flank, the edge closest to the DMR.
"The peak burning period won't be as serious this afternoon with the cloud cover," Fowler told KRTS.
1 bulldozer crew and 2 small truck crews responded to the scene, and another crew was expected to arrive this afternoon. Texas Forest Service and DPS conducted an aerial survey of the fire this morning, with ground help from volunteer firefighters from Fort Davis and the DMR.
Jeff Davis County is still under a burn ban, along with neighboring Presidio, Brewster, Pecos, Reeves and Culberson Counties.
