BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Explosives seized and detonated by South Texas law officers started a fire that burned for six hours before it could be extinguished.
The blaze burned more than 100 acres of brush Wednesday in South Brownsville after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and McAllen and Brownsville police triggered the blast at the Brownsville Police Department's training facilities.
Burning debris that landed in a field started the brush fire, Brownsville police Lt. James Paschall said.
Firefighters from Los Fresnos and the U.S. Forestry Division battled the blaze with more than 11,000 gallons of water, Brownsville Assistant Fire Chief David Hinojosa said.
Police training facilities were not damaged by the blaze, said Paschall.
A larger fire in Starr County started at about the same time, charring more than 6,000 acres, U.S. Forestry station Capt. Hadley Kleeb told The Brownsville Herald in Friday's editions.
Kleeb said U.S. Forestry firefighters have responded to about 60 blazes this summer throughout the Rio Grande Valley, with about 13 of them in the last three days.
