Fire officials are continuing to warn of high fire danger throughout the week as strong winds persist.
The 8 Ball Fire burned an estimated 13,000 acres and remains 55% contained, forcing the evacuation of nearly 400 homes and threatening 1,000 more. While some residents were able to return home, state and local resources remained actively engaged in suppression and containment.
As of this past Wednesday, Texas A&M Forest Service reported nine active wildfires across the state, with the largest in Gillespie County. That fire has spread to more than 1,100 acres and was 70% contained.
That fire drew concerns after firefighters had put out two major fires in the Texas Panhandle that burned more than 32,000 acres.
In the local area on Sunday, the Carlisle Fire Department, Woodrow Fire Department, Abernathy Fire Department, Shallowater Fire Department and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department responded to Yellow Lake Fire that had burned around 50 acres. area. The fire began northwest of Shallowater and was moving east. As of 4 p.m., first responders were still on scene, with the fire 65% contained.
Since Feb. 19, the Texas A&M Forest Service has reported 60 wildfires across Texas, the same day, Governor Greg Abbott announced that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had approved a request from the State of Texas for a Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) for the 8 Ball Fire that started in Armstrong County and entered Donley County.
'Texas continues to work around the clock to provide all necessary resources to those affected by the 8 Ball Fire,' said Governor Abbott. 'With this FEMA grant, our brave wildfire response teams will be further equipped to manage and contain fires in the Panhandle.'
By Wednesday morning, more than 60% of state counties were under a burn band with the majority in the Panhandle and Central Texas.
As of early March 2026, Hockley County is not under an active, county-wide burn ban, but residents have been advised to exercise caution due to dry conditions and potential grass fire risks and to notify the local fire department before conducting any controlled burns.
Texas A&M Forest Service Adam Turner said that in addition to the normal resources, they have nearly doubled the response capacity size by staging additional people across the state to support local fire departments.
Analyzing the most recent wildfire statistics from the Texas A&M Forest Service, 2024 saw the fewest number of wildfires the state has seen in the past 20 years. There were 5,187 reported wildfires, but they burned through more than 1.3 million acres of land.
As wildfire dangers continue this week, officials say to follow the burn bans put in place and to consider cutting grass and brush to help prevent the spread of a wildfire should it occur.
On Feb. 23, Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows gave an update on progress that had been made toward preventing and fighting wildfires since the Smokehouse Cree Fire destroyed more than 1 million acres of land in the Panhandle in 2024.
Burrows said he believes the state is better prepared, noting that in talking to volunteer firefighters, that often they didn’t have the funding to fill up their pumpers because the gas card was declined.
According to Burrows, “We cleared the backlog on grants to our volunteer firefighters so that would not happen again.”
This past legislative session, lawmakers investigated the Smokehouse Creek fire and passed bills like Senate Bill 34, which allocates more funding to departments in high wildfire risk areas and cleared a backlog of more than 2,000 grant applications. They also passed a bill that removed the cap for funding volunteer fire departments.
Representative Ken King, who chaired the investigative committee on the Smokehouse Creek fire, said he’s also focusing on holding electrical companies accountable.
“We don’t have a wind problem. We have an aging, under-maintained infrastructure,” King said. “We created a wildfire mitigation plan that all utilities have to cover.” Burrows and King both said they’re looking to make aerial equipment and better communication infrastructure a priority for the 2027 legislative session.