24-03-2025
Crabapple Fire: How you can help residents who lost homes
The Brief
The Crabapple Fire in Gillespie County is now out.
Nine homes were destroyed in the fire.
The Woods family is looking to rebuild their home.
The fast-moving Crabapple Fire that burned nearly 10,000 acres near Fredericksburg is finally out.
Investigators are continuing to look into what sparked the fire as residents are seeing the damage the blaze left behind.
What they're saying
Isabella Woods' first home with her husband was destroyed in the Crabapple Fire.
The two were in their upstairs apartment above the garage when the fire tore across their property.
Charles Woods, Isabella's father, was working on remodeling the home next door. The house had been in their family for generations.
"There was just a wall of fire and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. I literally tried to fight it off as long as I could," Woods said. "I think of all the memories, I have a lot of sadness I have a lot of anger but I'm trying really hard to put that in a better energy, try to move forward, clean up and rebuild."
Help has poured in since last weekend, including more than $6,500 in donations to the family's GoFundMe from people looking to help.
"It's hard to look for the good, but you know what, things like this happen and there's a lot of good things that come out of this. A lot of good people that come around and there's still good people out there and we're getting a lot of support, a lot of help," said Charles Woods.
The Woods say it will take a while to rebuild, but they plan to do it for the next generation.
"I feel very hopeful. I've got my husband. I've got my dogs and cats and I'm glad to be able to have the opportunity where we can start over and hopefully get somewhere again," said Isabella Woods.
What you can do
Gillespie County partnered with the OneStar Foundation and Rebuild Texas to create the Crabapple Fire Relief Fund.
Fox 7 Austin also received another GoFundMe for a nearby family's workshop that was lost to the fire
The backstory
The fire began as a grass fire around 1 p.m. on March 15, just 11 miles north of Fredericksburg between Lower Crabapple Road and Landrum Creek. Smoke from the fire could be seen in Austin.
Damage assessments from the Texas A&M Forest Service and the Texas Division of Emergency Management are listed below:
Nine homes were destroyed – seven were possibly occupied and two were not occupied.
Two homes damaged
20 outbuildings destroyed
Four outbuildings damaged
Before it was put out, the fire burned 9,858 acres.
The Source
Information in this article comes from FOX 7 interviews with the Woods family, the Texas A&M Forest Service and Fredericksburg Fire EMS.
