CHEROKEE COUNTY — "They started bringing in heavy trucks!  Me and the grandbaby was asleep...and we looked out and there was a fire," said East Texan Odie Wallace.

Wallace was right - 5 acres were burning practically in her own backyard on County Road 1615 in Cherokee County.

"They said it started on the other side of the road and jumped the road and come over in behind this house up here," Wallace said.

Fire officials on scene tell KETK a neighbor was cooking corn in an outdoor boiler and the fire got out of control.

They say he's likely to face a burn ban violation as well as wreckless endangerment of property.

Livestock was endangered, a house evacuated...and choppers took to the skies.

Michael Batton with the Texas Forest Service says the fire spread rapidly.

As far as this year's drought goes...he's never seen anything quite like it.

"The conditions are bad...or as bad as I've ever seen them.  I've been in the forest service 24 years and very few times I remember [it] being this dry, this bad, this long," Batton said.

"It's scary, you never think about it until it's right up on you so...it's scary...I'll lose sleep tonight," Wallace said.