MS Coast fires burned 150 acres as frightened residents fled. ‘Never seen fire like that’

Two dangerous woods fires scorched backyards and forced residents of a shaken Jackson County neighborhood to flee on Thursday but did not cause significant damage because firefighters doused the flames before they could ignite nearby homes.

“It puts a shiver down your spine,” Josh Pitts, a longtime neighborhood resident said of the 30 foot flames, crackling pines and smell of smoke that neighbors are still trying to eradicate from their homes. “I’ve never seen fire like that before.”

The blaze began before 4 p.m. Thursday in the Talla Pointe subdivision. It burned 126 acres and threatened 55 homes but “miraculously” damaged none, said Shannon Coker, communications director at the Mississippi Forestry Commission. A second fire north of Old Fort Bayou Road just across from the Espana Woods subdivision burned about 25 acres, authorities said. The fires threatened 62 homes in total, Jackson County Emergency manager Earl Etheridge said. Both were fully contained Friday morning.

Authorities did not issue mandatory evacuations but strongly urged residents to leave. Neighbors turned hoses and sprinklers on the flames, which burned for over four hours until the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said neighbors could return home about 8 p.m. The fires scorched backyard fences as they blazed through the pines, released an ominous cloud of smoke above Ocean Springs and St. Martin and frazzled families, who checked the trees through a restless night, fearful of another spark. Smoke rose from the scorched ground at sunrise.

Residents of the normally-quiet Jackson County neighborhood said the fires were astonishing, and unlike anything the area had seen before. A third fire also burned 25 acres off Lamey Bridge Road in D’Iberville but never threatened structures, Coker said. That fire was also contained by Friday morning.

It is unclear what caused the three fires, but Coker said the most wildfires are human-caused. The State Fire Marshal will investigate the root of Thursday’s blazes, Etheridge said.

The most dangerous flames spread in a stretch of woods behind the Talla Pointe subdivision near St. Martin High School just as hundreds of school children were leaving buses and as parents slogged home during rush hour. The fire appeared to worsen with a strong wind from the north but may have spread less than it could have because Jackson County is not under drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor .

“We woke up very grateful,” said Laurri Garcia, a realtor who lives in the Talla Pointe subdivision.

“It was simply incredible our house didn’t go up,” said Vicky Evans, another neighborhood resident. “I still can’t believe it.”

Woods fires are not uncommon in Mississippi even though the region is more accustomed to threats of hurricanes and floods. In April, crews fought five blazes , including a grass fire near Interstate 10 in Moss Point that sent smoke across traffic and slowed drivers for several hours. A fire last February burned 419 acres in Hancock County but prompted no evacuations before firefighters contained it.

Local firefighters, the Jackson County Fire District, the Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Forestry Commission rushed to the flames Thursday evening. Smoke could be seen from across the county, and many took to social media to wonder aloud why they smelled smoke and to worry about the billowing cloud of ash that rose into the sky.

In Talla Pointe, residents rushed outside to stare in bewilderment at flames high as houses, then raced to gather documents, families and pets into cars to flee the neighborhood. They knocked on doors and warned neighbors to leave. They listened to what Pitts called the “crackling roar” of flames and wind.

Their nerves were shaken. But over and over again, residents of Talla Pointe praised firefighters and their community.

“We feel very thankful,” said Evans, who lives with her husband in Florida and returns to their Talla Pointe home often. Through a home video camera, the couple watched, helpless, from Port Charlotte, Florida, as firefighters battled flames that lit their back fence and scorched the woods behind their garden. “We were watching this just sick to our stomachs,” she said. “We could do nothing.”

Just down the road, Garcia called the fire “a very surreal experience.” Soot and charred pine needles swirled over her lawn. She evacuated with her parents, four dogs and a rose-breasted cockatoo named Romo. “You know how a tornado swirls?” she said. “That’s how that smoke and fire was going.”

On Friday, residents were catching up on sleep and searching for air purifiers and charcoal filters to cleanse their homes of smoke. They would like to donate to the first responders who rushed to help, Pitts said, maybe by organizing a cookout.

“Y’all better be writing your checkbooks,” he said. “We’re lucky.”

Sun Herald editor Tim Thorsen contributed reporting.