The Ross Fire has claimed homes, structures, and livestock. Just the sight of it can leave you with a pit in your stomach, and a sense of worry about your own home.
While the risk of a wildfire claiming your home in more urban areas is fairly low, a grass fire in these dry conditions can still be a point of concern, and there are steps you can take to safeguard your home.
Jeffrey Hogan is the acting assistant fire chief with the Irving fire department and he joined NTX Now's Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning to talk about fire safety in North Texas.
To listen to this interview in its entirety, click the 'listen' button above.
How to protect your home
Hogan says there is not a great option for completely "fireproofing" your home. He says there are four things a fire needs to be a free burning, sustained fire.
"It needs a heat source, a fuel, oxygen, and then those three that allow it to have a chemical reaction, which makes it free burning," Hogan said.
Certain measures, like keep landscaping away from the immediate permitter of your home, can help protect the structure, but it's best to be aware and remember fire safety tips in the event of a house fire.
Human causes
While fires can start in a variety of ways, Hogan says their mainly caused by people.
"Most of the times, these fires are caused by human action, be it inadvertent or unintentional, it's still on us," he said. "They do end up doing a lot of damage and sometimes harming people."
He says awareness makes a huge difference.
"When it comes to being safe, I think any type of outdoor cooking, you really [should] question, is this something I really need to be doing right now?" he said.
"Improperly discarded smoking materials, we all know those are a problem," he said. "Any type of machinery that causes sparks, so grinding or welding in an area that can catch something on fire, and with the wind and the dry conditions, that can exacerbate the problem and that fire can spread quickly to other areas."
Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning are the hosts of KERA's NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org or Ron at rcorning@kera.org.
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