Firefighters Battle 66-Acre Brush Fire In Williamson County

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — Williamson County firefighters battled a 66-acre brush fire in Hutto on Sunday afternoon, finally containing the fire two hours after it erupted.

The Hutto Fire and Rescue squad responded to the blaze at 341 Windmill Road just before 5 p.m., a conflagration that prompted evacuation of five nearby households, county officials said in a press advisory. No injuries were reported, officials added, and the structures were not affected by the flames.

Well into the evening, residents were still displaced. "Evacuated residents will be allowed to return to their homes once the scene is determined safe," a county spokesperson wrote in an email just before 8 p.m.

Amid temperatures in the mid 90s, the fire spread quickly. Initial reports placed the scale at five acres, a figure later amended to reflect a fire that engulfed 66 acres of land. With precious little rain of late, the landscape in rural parts of Austin's outskirts are a veritable tinderbox. The county is currently under an outdoor burn ban as a result of the hot conditions, officials reminded.

The intensity of the flames reached such proportions that other fire agencies had to come to assist their Hutto Fire and Rescue counterparts, including those from Cedar Park, Coupland, Florence, Georgetown, Leander, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Taylor, Weir, and the Texas Forest Service, as well as Star Flight and resources from Williamson County Emergency Management, Fire Marshal’s Office, Emergency Communications, and Sheriff’s Office.

The conflagration was extinguished about two hours after the flames ignited, according to fire officials. Post-fire, officials said the cause of the fire was being investigated by the Williamson County Fire Marshal's Office, which determined it resulted from a barbecue pit.

From earlier:

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — Firefighters were battling a five-acre grass fire in Hutto on Sunday that prompted the evacuation of area residents.

The blaze occurred at 341 Wind Mill Ridge, according to the Williamson County Sheriff's Office in a tweet just after 5 p.m. The sheriff's office initially said no nearby structures were in danger, but in the chaos of the scene had earlier reported around 4:30 p.m. that five households were evacuated as a safety precaution.

One of those homes was categorized as being in danger of being engulfed by flames, officials said.

By 6:55 p.m., sheriff's officials reported the grass fire had been contained.