It’s no secret that the Bigfoot area is rapidly growing, and the local fire chief discusses some of the growing pains, and issues an important reminder about leaving brush fires unattended. It’s led to quite an increase in call volume for not only fires, but setting up airlife landing zones, for the Bigfoot volunteer first responders.
“One of the biggest issues with these new developments is that a lot of these newcomer’s in Bigfoot, who have purchased a 5 or 10 acre tract, are starting a brush fire to clear their new property, and then just leaving it. They’ll leave and not come back for a week,” Fire Chief Mark Leach said.
“This has happened at least 10 times in the past couple years since the development started, and 4 times this year already. One of the last fires we had like this was a really windy day and those embers were blowing everywhere. It could have very easily caught a neighbor’s property or home on fire. Luckily, neighbors have called to let us know before it got too out of hand.”
At last count, years ago, the community of Bigfoot had 350 residents, according to the Bigfoot Volunteer Fire Department. The rural area is rapidly growing, with an estimated 100 new properties being subdivided and sold in the past few years. With multiple residents living in each one of those properties (and an average of 2.5 people per American household), the population of Bigfoot will surely be close to double.
“When someone starts and just leaves it like that, it’s hard for us to even locate or find out who owns these new properties,” Chief Leach said. “We’d like to remind everyone that when you are doing a controlled burn, you need to contact the Frio County Sheriff’s office first, and please never leave a fire unattended. If you see this happening, please report it.”
“They are putting in even more, and I think they are in the second phase of that development,” Leach said.
Frio County Sheriff’s office is 830-334-3311.
