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    Smoke in Stone Oak

    A wildfire drill almost gone wrong: Seeing smoke in suburban San Antonio

    William James Gerlich
    Sep 11, 2011 | 11:30 am

    Seeing thick clouds of black smoke rolling toward your house is haunting, and packing up one's house in preparation for it to be burnt to the ground is even worse.

    In suburban San Antonio, a wildfire spread throughout one of the most popular neighborhoods just in time to devastate my family's labor day barbeque plans. Although the flames were nowhere near the size of the big blazes in Bastrop, the fire was moving quickly.

    My aunt, uncle and cousin called my father panicked because their house was bordering the flames. They started to gather their belongings, but a fireman yelled at them to drop everything and literally run. Don’t drive, run.

    With nothing but the clothes on their backs, a cell phone and three dogs, they made it out of the subdivision, lungs filled with smoke but untouched by the fire.

    My father picked them up, and we regrouped at my family’s house. Because of the panic-stricken mode my extended family was in, we decided to pack up as many of our belongings as we could before the fire made it to us.

    We began grabbing photo albums, yearbooks, clothes and other valuables from around the house.

    I’m sure we looked like chickens with our heads cut off, running back and forth from our rooms to our cars. I even packed a television, which in retrospect, of course, was ridiculous.

    My father took the initiative of knocking on our neighbors' doors to alert them of the situation. “The fire is about a mile away, but could be coming to our neighborhood soon,” he told them.

    There are five of us in my immediate family: My parents, two sisters and me. We each filled our individual cars with our belongings and began to evacuate the neighborhood like a parade of people prepared for the apocalypse.

    All five cars drove to my grandparents' ranch outside of the city, where we waited. We watched the news, I Tweeted heavily, my sisters kept up with Facebook, and the rest of my family ate. Stone Oak, our neighborhood, was trending nationally for a while. Unfortunately it was because of a natural disaster, but still — trending!

    After a while the news looked good. My aunt's house appeared to still be in the midst of the fire, but our house was going to be fine. An hour later we got word to head back to the city. Our next door neighbors had stayed behind and wrote on my sister's Facebook wall “all clear.”

    As it turned out, our house was untouched, and my extended family’s home had sustained only minor damages (mostly water damage, because of the firefighters.)

    It was almost embarrassing when all five of our cars drove back to our house to begin unpacking our massive suitcases. It was, however, a good test run. If the apocalypse were to come tomorrow or the world blows up in smoke on Dec. 21, 2012, my family will be prepared — television and all.

    I am grateful that the firefighters were able to contain the flames, and grateful that my aunt's house was in better shape than we thought it was going to be.

    What troubles me is thinking of those who have lost everything. No one in my neighborhood was in that situation, but my heart goes out to those in Bastrop because, for a moment, we knew how it felt. Pretty much helpless.

    unspecified
    news/city-life

    This Week's Hot Headlines

    Houston billionaire ranks among top U.S. landowners and more popular stories

    CultureMap Staff
    Jun 14, 2025 | 11:01 am
    HMNS Great Outdoors Gala 2022 Russell and Glenda Gordy and Red FJ Cruiser
    Photo by Jenny Antill
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    Editor's note: It's time to look back at the top Houston news of the week, including a look at one of America's top landowners. Plus, the sad closure of a pioneering steakhouse and a popular pizzeria makes plans for Houston. Get the details on our most popular stories below, then head here to plan your weekend.

    1. Houston oil-and-gas billionaire ranks among America's top 100 landowners. About one-fourth of the country’s mega-owners of private land have ties to Texas, either living here, owning land here, or both. The highest-ranked Houston-based landowner is oil-and-gas billionaire Russell Gordy.

    2. Houston's pioneering South American steakhouse will soon shutter in River Oaks. Sad news for inner loopers who are fans of plantain chips, wood-grilled steaks, and Houston’s best tres leches. The River Oaks location of South American steakhouse Churrascos will close Monday, June 16.

    3. Texas Monthly's BBQ Snob dishes on the magazine's new top 50 list. On this episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn joins CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss the magazine’s new list of the 50 best barbecue joints in Texas.

    4. 'Famous' Bronx-based pizza chain fires up 3 Houston locations. A New York-based pizza chain has big plans for Houston. Called Singas Famous Pizza, the restaurant will soon open three locations in the area.

    Singas PizzaSingas Pizza is coming to Houston.Photo courtesy of Singas

    5. Texas slides down the list of best U.S. state economies for 2025. Texas' robust economy may be showing some cracks. Texas now ranks as the state with the eighth best economy, four spots lower than one year ago, according to a new report.

    most popular storiesbillionairesrankingsreportsclosingstexas monthlybbqpizzaopeningsreal estatehot-headlines
    news/city-life
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