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Gov. Abbott issues disaster declaration as Das Goat Fire rages

Clayton Allen

Firefighters continue to battle a large fire in Medina County just south of Lake Medina.

The Das Goat Fire began on Friday afternoon, according to James Wettstaed, a public information officer assigned to the fire.

"A vehicle driving down the road caught fire pulled off to the side of the road and the fire jumped into the brush,” he said.

On Saturday afternoon, residents — including the entire town of Mico — began to be evacuated as the fire began to grow due to windy conditions.

Several homes have been damaged. Many areas also suffered power outages from downed power lines due to the fire.

By Sunday afternoon, the fire had grown to over 1,000 acres with about 100 firefighters battling the blaze — along with several aircraft that were called in to help.

"Because of the level of damages that have already been sustained i'm going to be issuing a disaster declaration for Medina County,” said Gov. Greg Abbott at a Sunday press conference.

Wettstaed said Monday morning that the Das Goat fire is one 50 percent contained. Officials are hoping to get the fire fully contained by midweek.

Das Goat is 70% contained, according to the Texas Wildfire Incident Response Systemwebsite.

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Jerry Clayton can be reached at jerry@tpr.org or on Twitter at @jerryclayton.