Wildfires in Texas

[K.C.]

One of my friends lives here in Texas. I'm very worried about him and his family. The summer drought combined with the winds from Tropical Storm Lee has made this fire devastating!

 

 

 

Sweeping Texas wildfires have 'devastating effects'By the CNN Wire StaffcnnAuthor = "('September 5, 2011 -- Updated 1825 GMT (0225 HKT)');} else {document.write('September 5, 2011 2:25 p.m. EDT');}September 5, 2011 2:25 p.m. EDTvar clickExpire = "-1";Smoke billows from a wildfire in Bastrop County, Texas, on Sunday.STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Evacuee: "You learn what is valuable in life, and it isn't the stuff"
• Gov. Rick Perry calls the wildfires "severe" and pledges resources to fight them
• One blaze has already scorched about 25,000 acres, officials say
• Two people are killed in an eastern Texas wildfire

Read more about the Texas fires from CNN affiliates KXAN and KVUE. Are you there? Share photos, video, but stay safe.

 

Bastrop, Texas (CNN) -- An unchecked wildfire southeast of Austin, Texas, destroyed 300 homes, scorched thousands of acres and stretched across a 16-mile area Monday, authorities said.

 

Another blaze in eastern Texas killed a mother and her 18-month-old child when flames engulfed their mobile home Sunday near Gladewater, the Gregg County Sheriff's Department said.

 

"The wildfire situation in Texas is severe and all necessary state resources are being made available to protect lives and property," Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement. "I urge Texans to take extreme caution as we continue to see the devastating effects of sweeping wildfires impacting both rural and urban areas of the state."

 

There are dozens of fires burning across the state, the Texas Forest Service said Monday.

 

'There's nothing left of these houses' Winds whip up Texas wildfires

• cnnRelatedTopicKeys.push('Wildfires'); Wildfires
• cnnRelatedTopicKeys.push('Texas'); Texas

Texas is battling its worst fire season in state history. A record 3.5 million acres have burned since the start of the season in November as hot and dry weather, coupled with a historic drought, made conditions ripe for rapid fire growth.

 

Over the weekend, officials said low relative humidity and strong winds from Lee, which made landfall as a tropical storm but has weakened to a tropical depression, further fanned the flames.

 

The outbreak of wildfires prompted Perry to head back to Texas from South Carolina, where he was scheduled to participate in a forum for Republican presidential candidates.

 

Meanwhile, the massive, uncontained fire in Bastrop County, near Austin, was the state's largest on Monday. In less than a day, it had destroyed 300 homes and threatened about 1,000 others, officials with the forest service's incident management team reported. About 5,000 residents evacuated as flames approached, officials said.

 

Lisa Ross learned she needed to leave her Bastrop home when her husband called 911 after realizing a looming fire had darkened the skies above.

 

"You learn what is valuable in life, and it isn't the stuff," she said. "It's people in your life, and what means something to you."

 

Cars crammed with belongings and pets packed a gas station on a highway near Austin, attorney Jonathan A. Zendeh Del said. "I've lived in Texas almost all my life, and I've never seen a fire that big in central Texas," he said.

 

Dark clouds of smoke billowing across the sky could be seen miles away from the fire Monday.

 

"Today is expected to be as bad, if not worse, than yesterday," Bastrop City Manager Mike Talbot told reporters.

 

Satellite images Monday showed the fire stretching over about 25,000 acres, jumping the Colorado River and a highway, the Texas Forest Service said.

 

More evacuations are likely as the fire spreads, officials said. Already, hundreds of people are in shelters as dangerous flames keep them from finding out whether their homes survived.

 

"It was like a storm coming through. You could smell the earth burning," said Julian Ochoa, who was evacuated from a Bastrop subdivision Sunday afternoon.

 

The 23-year-old grabbed his dog, a toothbrush, his birth certificate and a few pictures as he left. He didn't know Sunday what happened to his home.

 

"All of Bastrop is a giant smoke cloud," he said.

 

Firefighters planned to use Black Hawk helicopters to douse flames with a mixture of water and fire retardant Monday, the incident management team said.

 

The fire forced parts of state highways 71 and 21 to shut and additional road closures were expected, fire officials said Sunday.

 

At least 63 new fires across Texas on Sunday burned nearly 33,000 acres, the state's fire service said. Fires were reported in at least 17 counties.

[TalonRider]

Speaking from an area that doesn't need the rain, a Mid-Atlantic state, it's a shame Lee didn't turn and head to Texas. Granted the winds would have been bad, but the rain could have helped.

[Tomas]

KC, I hope your friends in Texas are all OK.

 

I would venture a guess that many people picture the NW as being rainy and wet, but the month of August is usually our hottest and driest time of the year, and this year is no exception. Just .04 inches of rain for the month of August with about another month before our rainy season starts.

 

There are several major wildfires burning in the state. I believe at last count there were 8 fires of various sizes burning through out the Cascades and the Mount Hood National Forest. The closest to me is designated the "Dollar Lake" fire and that is on the slopes of Mount Hood about 17 miles as the crow flies from here. Smoke from the fires is filtering into the Willamette Valley mostly South of the Portland Metro area, down around Salem.

 

Many forest roads have been closed and several popular mountain lake resorts have been closed as a precaution. The Warm Springs Indian Reservation is in danger from the one of the fires.

 

Since the fires are mostly in mountainous terrain, it is a difficult task to bring them into containment. The dry, hot winds make it even more dangerous for the fire fighters and dry heat lightening, which is the cause of most of the fires, adds even more danger.

 

A young friend in Arizona works in the summer for the Forest Service in Arizona and was involved in fighting the monsterous "Wallow" fire in SE Arizona earlier and for a time in fighting the fire in NM that threatened the Los Alamos laboratories. As far as I know at this time, he is out on some fire line somewhere.

 

Wildfires, no matter where or when they occur, can be devastating. Not only in the physical destruction that occurs, but also in the emotional and mental toll on the people involved, victims and fire fighters alike.

[K.C.]

A new day, but it still doesn’t look any better. More than 1,000 homes lost in 1 town. 5,000 people homeless, 2 known deaths and over 100,000 acres burned. This fire has destroyed an entire community! The officials state that with the winds dying down that they hope to battle the blaze. For many, it’s now too late!

 

 

[Nephylim]

I can't even begin to imagine. It makes you focus on the things that are important.

 

Blessings go to all the folks going through this and the friends and family who worry.

[NightOwl88]

I feel your anxiety KC, I have several friends in Texas around the way of the wildfires and i haven't been able to reach them to now if they are in the exact path of the fires. I've found myself wishing the Lee had headed that way too, if only for the rain.