UPDATE: Texas Forest Service Assistant Regional Coordinator David Abernathy said this afternoon that the Dads River Fire is 100 percent contained and out at this time.
TRINITY/TRINITY COUNTY (KYTX) - A fire that forced evacuations of some Trinity County residents on Wednesday continues to grow.
According to the Texas Forest Service, the blaze, now called the Dads River Fire, has reached 502 acres. That means it has grown by two-thirds its size from Wednesday night, when authorities asked residents in the Landing subdivision near Lake Livingston to leave their homes. The evacuations were called off later that night.
The fire originated Wednesday afternoon in a pine plantation near FM 3188 between Trinity and Groveton.
In the past seven days, the Texas Forest Service has been involved with 23 wildfires in the state, and each fire was reported west of the Trinity River and north of Beaumont, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Local fire departments have fought another 39 wildfires in that time.
Most of East Texas is under moderate fire danger today, though a high fire danger is forecast for much of Cherokee, Anderson, Rusk, Houston, Trinity, Angelina, Nacogdoches, Panola, Shelby, Harrison, Marion, and San Augustine counties, according to Texas A&M University researchers. A portion of northern Nacogdoches County is under "very high" fire danger.
