By Daniel Johnson-Kim, Editor in Chief

While a cloud of smoke filled the sky and two helitankers dropped water on flames less than 30 feet away, Peter Fischer, his wife Beverly and a group of more than 20 of the Fischer’s employees, friends, family and neighbors pulled out all the stops to prevent the blaze from reaching their house and igniting two propane tanks in the backyard.

Two Abilene Fire engines parked behind the Fischers’ house, and while AFD firefighters battled flames spreading through the brush and grass in the distance, the crowd behind the Fischers’ home soaked the ground with garden hoses, orange water coolers, a water pump and anything else they could find.

“One of my neighbors called, and I just left work,” Peter Fischer said right before shouting at one of his employees to grab a big blue hose behind the house.

The Fischers saved their home, but the grass fire that started near County Road 258 in Callahan County burned more than 700 acres and destroyed at least two homes and damaged several structures Tuesday afternoon, said Les Rogers, an assistant chief with the Texas Forest Service.

The fire began between 3-3:30 p.m. and quickly burned through acres of dead brush and grass in the area between Eula and Clyde, while the sun set on the smoke-filled sky. The blaze spread in a north east direction and torched hundreds of acres of land in less than two hours.

Rogers said more than 100 structures were in threat of being burned during the fire, which was more than 10 miles from ACU’s campus; smoke could be seen from East North 16th Street.

“For Callahan, this is one of the bigger one’s this year,” Rogers said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Rogers said. No injuries were reported.

The Texas Forest Service was called to the scene around 5 p.m., and the Air Attack, Helitankers and Strike Team of dozers joined seven fire departments in battling the blaze. Units from Abilene, Hamby, Potosi, Clyde, Baird, Eula and Dyess responded to the fire, and 80 percent of the fire was contained by 9 p.m. Tuesday.

A neighbor called Peter Fischer, the owner of Abilene Sales, 1649 S. Treadaway, around 3 p.m., and he rushed back to the house he has only called home for three years. His wife Beverly and their daughter Stephanie Sullivan, a second grade teacher at Clyde Elementary school, left their workplaces soon after.

When Sullivan arrived she said the fire was spreading through brush more than 40 feet away from her father’s home. Although she and her mother were some of the last people on the scene, there was a team of familiar faces soaking the ground and taking orders from Peter.

“It’s just amazing,” Beverly said. “That’s your small town atmosphere; everybody shows up.”