By DANI BLACKBURN
dani@postoakmedia.net
During 2018 parts of the nation experienced historical wildfires that claimed more than 80 lives and destroyed thousands of structures.
While Montague County has been fortunate to avoid disastrous massive fires this year, many residents know tragedy can easily strike as the 13th anniversary of the Jan. 1, 2006 Ringgold fire that destroyed 30 homes, burned 15,000 acres and killed hundreds of head of livestock nears.
Brant Frazier, a professional firefighter with the City of Fort Worth and a City of Bowie volunteer firefighter, was at the forefront of those tremendous California wildfires this past year, as well as other large fires in Texas.
He has spent the better part of the year deployed to battle these deadly blazes as part of the North Texas Fire Resources and Texas Interstate Fire Mutual Aid System.
California has led the headlines this year as wildfires scorched acres and acres of forest land and homes, but Texas also suffered as fuels, weather patterns and topography created the perfect environment for wildfires to cause rampant destruction.
“I would say that our wildfires in Texas are driven a lot by our weather patterns,” explained Frazier. “If you look at this year, we typically have the worse wildfire years when we go from a really wet year into a really dry year just due to the vegetation and having that large amount of growth.”

Read the full feature in the weekend News.