CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A warning is being sent to Coastal Bend residents about the dry vegetation as a result of the recent cold snap.
The dry and dead vegetation can cause fire danger, something area fire departments are seeing as they have already called on each other for mutual support.
In Refugio County, volunteer fire crews were called out to four major grass fires in the span of some three hours Wednesday -- which resulted in elected leaders calling for a burn ban.
"It has gotten extremely critical after the freeze we had in December around Christmas, now this grass has turned into gunpowder, dry, flammable. A really serious condition," said Fire Chief Ronnie Williams with the Refugio Volunteer Fire Department.
Williams told 3NEWS that a number of grass fires have been keeping him and his department busy the last couple of days.
"The last one we had on Fox Road we had Bee County, Goliad County and Refugio County and even Aransas County helping with that one," he said.
Due to grass being extremely dry after the recent cold snap, Williams said that brittle grass can be the perfect fuel for larges fires.
"We had livestock, horses in pins and the fire was going straight for the horses, they were getting pretty crazy, around houses, we were fortunate to be here and get it out," he said about a fire on Fox Rd.
Conditions got to a point where Refugio County Commissioners held an emergency meeting Thursday to issue the ban.
3NEWS spoke with newly elected county judge Jhiela Poynter about the current situation.
"In addition to that when you spread your resources thin, like our fire fighters, we have a volunteer force and you send them out there and they are running every which way. If we have an emergency in town we want to make sure they are available to take care of that as well," she said.
The burn ban allows the county to prohibit or restrict outdoor burning and cite those who break the ban.
The burn ban is set to last more than 60 days.