Fire destroys double-wide house
CR 3415 blaze south of U.S. 190 is county's third in four days
By JIM LOWE Staff Writer

PHOTO BY JIM LOWE City of Lampasas Fire Marshal Reece Oestreich helps battle a blaze that charred a home in the county last Friday.

A fire of undetermined causes destroyed a double-wide manufactured house early Friday afternoon about one-half mile south of U.S. Highway 190.

Officials received a call about the blaze at 12:39 p.m. The Donald Herring residence at 455 County Road 3415 was destroyed, Lampasas County Fire Marshal Gene Harrison said.

The fire remains under investigation, Harrison said Sunday night.

Herring and a friend, Michael Ybarra, had left the residence less than 15 minutes earlier to get Herring's mail down the road, Ybarra said.

When the two men returned, "I thought someone was just burning brush, but when we got down here, the house was gone," Ybarra said.

Herring has been a resident of the area since 2001. His wife, Silvia, a correctional officer in Gatesville, was at work at the time of the fire.

Herring said he had no idea what caused the fire. The blaze began in a back bedroom, Harrison said. Noting the house was a total loss, the fire official said, "It's gone."

Lampasas Fire Department, Kempner Volunteer Fire Department and the Lampasas County Sheriff's Department responded to the fire call.

Friday's blaze was Lampasas County's third house fire in four days.

In each case, structures were devastated.

During the first blaze, on Tuesday morning fire struck a singlestory brick house at 207 Armadillo Lane off County Road 4804 in Kempner.

Flames consumed more than half of the Dennis Reed residence. The fire was started by a short in the electrical wiring inside a bedroom wall, officials said.

Reed, a Killeen fireman, and his wife and two children were not at home at the time of the blaze.

Two days later, fire destroyed an abandoned frame house on County Road 3421 -- several miles north of Farm-to-Market Road 580 East -- owned by Mickey Bozarth, Harrison said.

The cause of the blaze is unknown, the county fire marshal said. Authorities received a call about the fire at 9:10 a.m. The blaze appeared to have started in a front living room, as a hardwood floor was consumed, Harrison said.

There was no electricity or liquid propane gas to the residence.

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In an unrelated matter, county commissioners last Tuesday voted to institute a burn ban, which began the same day at 6:01 p.m.

After heavy rains in May and June, which caused flooding in parts of the county, recent months have been very dry, which led to the ban.

Outdoor burning is prohibited in unincorporated areas for 90 days, unless the Commissioners Court lifts restrictions early.

The ban does not apply to barbecue pits or to household trash burned in a barrel with a screen on top. Citizens may obtain special exceptions for agricultural purposes with prior approval from the county fire marshal.

Violators of the burn ban face possible Class C misdemeanor charges, punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.