Four fires on the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast of Texas have grown to 13,000 acres in the last few days. It’s prompted officials to close the wildlife refuge to the public.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel said today that the fires on the refuge were ignited by lightning — the first on July 14. A series of lightning storms has since passed through, torching off more fies. Park Ranger Tami Schutter said they decided to close the refuge yesterday.
Jim Stockie, the FMO on the refuge, told the Associated Press that they’ve had a tremendous amount of lightning across the 68,000-acre refuge for the last three weeks. He said the latest fire grew to over 4,000 acres. About 15 firefighters from the wildlife agency and National Park Service are assigned.
