BASTROP, Texas — Jim Attra owns three businesses along Highway 71 in Bastrop.
All three of Attra's businesses were within mere feet of the flames from the Powder Keg Pine fire on Tuesday night.
“I'm going, ‘All my property is fixin’ to go up in smoke,’” Attra said.
This isn’t the first time this area has been threatened by a wildfire. In the 2011 Bastrop fire, every single one of the structures on this same property went up in flames.
“They lost everything, the house and all the businesses. So we're going, ‘Oh, no, not again, here we go,’” Attra said.
Attra bought these properties a few years after the previous owners had to completely rebuild everything on the land. He said it was a concerning sight to see flames all around him when he arrived there on Tuesday afternoon.
"It was aglow,” Attra said. “You would see it go down, then see it come back up.”
All of the tenants of his businesses evacuated Tuesday afternoon, but Attra was still worried things could end like they did in 2011.
“As long as the people weren't in harm's way, we were good,” Attra said. “But I was thinking, 'OK, here we go. We got to rebuild all this, start all over again.' And we're going, 'I don't want to do that.'"
River Perkins was born and raised in Bastrop and was also shocked to see flames moving closer to his house on Tuesday evening.
“It was scary. I mean, how it could get to our house pretty quick and how fast it burns in the dry grasses,” Perkins said.
Perkins had to evacuate his home for a few hours, but both before he left and after he returned, his father was watering around their house to make sure the flames didn’t come near.
“He grabbed the water hoses and started watering, and he was watering out back and all around while I was grabbing a lot of the stuff inside. And then I came out and help him start watering,” Perkins said.
Perkins was relieved the fire stayed away overnight but said he would spend the day watering all around his house to keep it safe.