A wildfire fatality in the Big Country and a recent burn injury in East Texas have one thing in common. Wheels brought fire to the landscape in both instances. A drive through a hay meadow in Taylor County in May resulted in a wildfire that claimed the life of an elderly woman and left her husband with severe burns. The burn injury, which occurred on June 9 in Cherokee County, resulted from a hay baler fire. Burned patches of vegetation along highway medians and roadsides often result from the carelessness of smoking travelers who flip smoking materials out a window instead of disposing of these properly in the ashtray.
Towed vehicles can sometimes drag metal or bump the road causing sparks.
Tire blowouts can also allow a tire rim or wheel to hit the road surface and cause sparks that ignite grass along roadways. Drivers who pull off roads into vegetation along roadways to perhaps change drivers, consult a map for directions or change a tire could unwittingly ignite a wildfire, if vegetation is tall enough to contact the vehicle's catalytic converter. Agricultural equipment may also generate sparks because of faulty spark arresters or mufflers. Even lawn mowers can ignite fires, either because of faulty mufflers or because mower blades hit rock or metal and cause a spark. Wheels quite often also are involved in woods arson, as arsonists spread their brand of maliciousness across the Texas landscape.