JASPER COUNTY, Texas — Firefighters have been working nonstop to keep Southeast Texas communities safe as wildfires continue to be a massive threat to the area.
On Labor Day, crews were battling a 300-acre fire in the Cairo Springs Community near county road 633 near Buna.
Many of these firefighters are actually volunteers who are trying to balance their duties, their families and their professional lives, all at once.
"The last few months have been, uh, pretty brutal," Beech Grove Fire Chief James Gunter said.
The Beech Grove Volunteer Fire Department has been on the frontlines of many fires in the past few weeks.
"These calls are getting drug out. What used to be a 30-minute call is now a three-hour call. It's just that these dry conditions turn these into extended events," Gunter said.
Gunter says because the firefighters are volunteers, his department is pretty shorthanded.
"It's tough, you know, during the daytime when people are at work we are shorthanded like most volunteer fire departments are and it's hard to find the people to answer the calls during the daytime," Gunter said.
Beech Grove crews were front and center at the recent Shearwood Creek Fire in Jasper County that burned 3,500 acres.
Beech Grove Fire President Keith Stephens says outside support has been extremely helpful in battling these wildfires.
"If it wasn't for the air support that we have and the bulldozers, it would have really been miserable, but we can stop it," Stephens said.
Stephens says exhausted volunteers can do little more than adapt, overcome and hope for a swift end to the record-breaking heat and drought.
"We have the heat and the drought. We've had one or the other, but having these two together," Stephens said. "You look around and you drive east Texas you see a lot of dead trees, that's rare. This is real rare. Just be careful. Mind your cigarettes, your campfires, don't do it. Wait til we have some rain, then enjoy outdoors."