Controlled Burn Sparks Wildfire in Nacogdoches [VIDEO]

There was a teensy ency wildfire south of Nacogdoches on Tuesday that barely got media coverage.

What makes this worthy of conversation is that the fire started off as a planned blaze before getting out of hand.

Now Tuesday's high temperature in Nacogdoches neared the century mark, and not being in the firefighting business, I'm at a loss for determining the overall best conditions for a controlled burn.  But, I've always wondered who gets the green light to strike the match, and does anyone else, other than the party lighting the candles, have to notify someone of their intentions.

This is what happens when it goes wrong:

I can only surmise that a qualified professional, or group of fire experts, must be present at the location of the prescribed flames, but driving down some back road East Texas highways about three weeks ago, I stood face-to-face with a controlled burn, and watched two guys holding garden hoses stand watch.

Seems to be that wind plays an important factor in all fires, and with all the innovative technology of the time, advance patterns of wind direction/speed should be a no- brainer?  We have the capability of predicting hurricane strikes and tornado paths, so why not wind deviation?  Or, do we?  If so, we simply don't utilize this valuable data when it is needed most.

Tuesday's swailing (fancy name for "controlled burn") knocked down 21 acres of land.  Not much really, when you consider that 640 acres equals one square mile.