Thursday morning fire crews in Denton County hustled to stop a grass fire along U.S. Highway 380 and Jackson Road from spreading to nearby structures.

The call came in around 10 a.m. for what the Texas A&M Forest Service is calling the 'Big Sky Fire.' Officials said Thursday afternoon that more than 70 acres had burned and was more than 75% contained.

Crews from the Ponder and Krum fire departments could be seen using brush trucks and hoses to put out flames that were fanned by winds.

The concern increased when the fire began to spread toward the Big Sky Estates neighborhood, which is filled with newly built homes.

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Residents in Denton County evacuate as grass fire threatens homes

This extreme heat paired with low humidity and high winds means our fire threat remains high across much of the state. Those conditions helped fuel a blaze that kept crews in Denton County busy while those who lived nearby packed bags just in case.

"My wife is calling me and saying, 'There's a wildfire right at the end of the street,' I said, 'Alright, I'm on my way home," said Eric Williams, who was outside with other neighbors watching fire crews fight the flames.

“I’ve been looking at smoke. I drove in from the highway. It's all the way down to the next street over here, this whole field was scorched there's nothing,” said Williams.

There was talk about possible evacuations, but crews were able to form a perimeter to protect the homes.

"I was a little nervous at first, but when I saw them out here actually cutting a line before the fire got too far, I felt a little better," said Williams. He and his wife, who are veterans, had all the essentials ready to go with their kids, just in case.

"I've been kind of watching for the last couple hours to see if it would cross the road," said Rebekah Sanchez, whose home backs up to the road separating the fire. "Staying close so I can get the dogs out if I needed to; everyone else is at work, so watching and seeing what needs to happen."

Fire crews were able to stop the spread and focused on hot spots.

"Luckily enough, the winds were keeping it from going to the south, southwest, so we were able to protect this very well," said Chief Brad Sebastian, the Denton County Fire Marshal.

He said they had asked for aerial help from the forest service, but by the time they got there, the ground crews were able to get it under control.

It's under investigation as to how the fire started, but he believes it was possibly near the highway.

"Typically we see this, cars going down the roadway dragging chains, throwing out cigarette butts, so its really important that people service their vehicles, check their tires don’t drag chains," said Sebastian who continues to be on alert considering the dry and hot weather. "When the winds pick up and the humidity drops that becomes the biggest challenge that fuels the fire.”

He said high grass in the Big Sky Trail area is what also caused the fire to spread quickly, but after a couple of hours, crews were able to get a handle on it.

TEXAS WILDFIRE INCIDENTS

As of Friday afternoon, the fire is estimated to be 72 acres and 95% contained.

DENTON COUNTY, Texas — Officials are working to put out a brush fire near the county line between Denton and Wise counties. No homes or buildings have burned.

The Big Sky Fire is reported near U.S. Highway 380 and Jackson Road in Stony. As of Friday afternoon, the fire was estimated to be 72 acres and 95% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

The agency said bulldozers have cut a line around the brush fire, removing grass and other fuels that could reignite. Firefighters are working to "widen and improve that line," a spokesperson tweeted.

"Basically, they're going to cut a road," Denton County Fire Marshall Brad Sebastian said. "They'll do a perimeter around the fire, that way it's controlled no matter what direction the wind blows."

Sebastian said investigators are still trying to determine how the fire started, though it appears to have sparked near U.S. Highway 380. Carelessness is likely to blame, he said.

"Someone probably dragging a chain, throwing out a cigarette butt, or something car-related," he said. "Any of those things can definitely ignite a fire right now."

Big Sky Estates residents watched from their windows as the fire consumed the field across the street from their houses Thursday. The development is new, meaning most neighbors have only lived in their homes for a few months.

"It's really rattling," said Paige Spehar, a first-time homeowner who moved to the neighborhood this spring. "It makes you appreciate all of the things in your life that you have, because they could not be there in a matter of seconds."

This article will be updated when more information is available.

https://t.co/LTC583r959 pic.twitter.com/WdwiabBfyH

— Matt Houston (@MattCHouston) August 3, 2023

A Red Flag Warning has been issued for areas along and west of I-35 until at least 1 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 4. This means any fires could spread very quickly if they get started. It is very hot, dry and breezy in these areas, and drought conditions continue to worsen.

Because of drought and dry conditions, almost all counties along and west of I-35W are under burn bans with more burn bans continuing to be added each day in other parts of North Texas.

Credit: WFAA

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Rather than fireworks, Denton’s free July Jubilee celebration on Monday will feature the city’s first drone show on the Square. The drone show is sponsored by the Denton Noon Kiwanis Club, which has hosted the city’s fireworks show as a fundraiser in previous years.

Because there are some new locations, new rules and, well, new drones to consider, we put together a guide to making sure you get to see the show in action from a good vantage point.

Denton’s July Jubilee Festival takes place Monday, July 3, from 6 to 10:30 p.m.

While there will be family-friendly activities like inflatables, rock climbing, face painting, games and photo opportunities, the evening will also host a hot dog-eating contest and live music from Brave Combo and Redline Drift — all before the drones take flight for two shows, one at 9:30 p.m. and one at 10:30 p.m.

The city of Denton said each drone show should last about 15 minutes.

Frisco-based Sky Elements’ drones will fly above the Courthouse on the Square lawn. City officials said the show will be visible for 3 miles from the Square, but the best vantage point will be from the courthouse lawn. The city’s July Jubilee webpage says the show will be best viewed “from the northeast corner of the courthouse lawn facing Recycled Books” and recommends referring to the event map

Depending on where they’re located, viewers might experience a slightly distorted or backward view of the images created by the drones.

Visitors can bring coolers, as well as alcohol, to the courthouse lawn. Responsible consumption of alcohol is permitted on the event grounds. The Denton Noon Kiwanis Club will also be selling beer and water from their booth on Hickory Street in front of The Chestnut Tree to benefit the Kiwanis Club Children’s Clinic.

For other food and drink options, there will be food trucks available, as well as the restaurants around the Square.

Parking will be available in lots at the corner of Oakland and Oak streets, as well as Industrial and Hickory streets. The North Central Texas College parking garage on East Sycamore Street will also be free to the public on Monday.

Designated ADA parking will be located at the intersection of McKinney and Bolivar streets.

For maps of downtown public parking, visit https://bit.ly/Downtown-Parking.

University of North Texas Lots 54 and 55 on West Sycamore Street will be free to the public on July 3 with complimentary Denton County Transportation Authority shuttle services.

Shuttles will loop continuously in 15-minute intervals between UNT and Cedar Street from 5 to 10 p.m. and stage return-only services at 10:30 p.m. until the event has cleared.

Festivalgoers are welcome to park in DCTA’s MedPark Station parking lot at 3220 MedPark Drive and take advantage of the A-train’s regularly scheduled “free fare” zone between MedPark and the Downtown Denton Transit Station on East Hickory Street. Between 10 p.m. and midnight, the A-train will extend the “free fare” zone in 30-minute intervals.

The evening’s full schedule is as follows:

Other activities include rock climbing, games, inflatable bounce houses, face painting and photo opportunities.

Denton residents have longed for a wider selection of grocery stores in the area for years. Among the most popular requests have been for boutique grocers such as Trader Joe’s — locals even started an online petition in the hopes of swaying the grocer to set up shop in Denton — and popular grocer H-E-B.

A few factors go into what makes a grocer decide to build a store in a new city or expand into a new market entirely. Among the most common are population, market saturation and median area incomes, which are lower in Denton than in other areas of North Texas, due in part to the university population.

That matters, according to Edward Fox, who directs the JCPenney Center for Retail Excellence at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. But other factors — like a population’s preference for natural and organic produce, which tends to be higher among more educated populations like Denton’s — can help offset low incomes for some boutique grocers.

H-E-B has owned land at the corner of West University Drive and Bonnie Brae Street since 2015, but despite regular check-ins by Denton Record-Chronicle staff, the grocer hasn’t announced plans to build a store there anytime soon.

Something else grocers consider is logistics. If they have a distribution center nearby, it’s easier to supply several stores in an area — think Denton’s three Krogers and Walmarts — versus expanding into new territory. It also allows stores to advertise in a more cost-efficient way through mailers and newspaper inserts versus advertising for just one store in a city, Fox points out.

“To put stores in Denton may have made a lot of sense for Kroger but less for H-E-B because H-E-B’s established further south, so entering the Denton market geographically is a stretch for them and the logistics of getting product there is a little harder,” Fox said. “It all kind of depends where they are — they don’t look at individual markets in isolation, it’s all relative to what they already have and where they already are.”

H-E-B in particular is known for its efficient logistics and distribution, so those considerations matter to the retailer.

That’s not to say Denton will never get a Trader Joe’s or H-E-B — the latter has already begun dipping its toes in the North Texas market with the recently opened Plano and Frisco stores, and plans for Alliance and McKinney. But H-E-B tends to take a longer view when it comes to expansion, Fox notes, which might prompt it to buy land in many areas to have the option to build.

“We often buy real estate in various parts of the state for future needs,” H-E-B spokesperson Mabrie Jackson told the Record-Chronicle in 2021. “H-E-B is a planful company. Bringing new formats and stores to new markets requires time and attention in order to ensure we serve our new customers well.”

Whether future openings in those areas are already mapped out or not, H-E-B, Trader Joe’s and just about any other grocer you can think of can change course as an area evolves. With Denton being home to a rapidly growing population, it’s inevitable that more grocery and retail options will continue to come into the area.

What those options will be and when, Denton residents will have to wait and see.

“As a company, we’re [H-E-B is] committed to serving all of North Texas, so hopefully we’ll have some news for Dentonites one day — these things just take time,” Jackson said.

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Daily Covid-19 admissions in the Denton County area

About the data

Data is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitalization data is a daily average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with Denton County, an area which may be larger than Denton County itself.

The number of daily hospital admissions shows how many patients tested positive for Covid in hospitals and is one of the most reliably reported indicators of Covid’s impact on a community.

Nearby hospitals

Share of I.C.U. beds occupied

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: The hospitals map shows the average I.C.U. occupancy at nearby hospitals in the most recent week with data reported. The data is self-reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by individual hospitals. It excludes counts from hospitals operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service. Numbers for hospitalized patients are based on inpatient beds and include I.C.U. beds. Hospitalized Covid-19 patients include both confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023.

How trends have changed in Denton County

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: Weekly county death data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. Hospitalization data is a weekly average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with Denton County. Hospitalization numbers early in the pandemic are undercounts due to incomplete reporting by hospitals to the federal government. Test positivity data is based only on test results reported to the federal government and is a seven-day average.

Historical trends in Denton County

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data in this chart has been archived and is no longer being updated. Weekly county case data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023.