Wildfire destroys nearly 500 homes in Texas
BASTROP, Texas (AP) - September 5, 2011
At least 5,000 people were forced from their homes in Bastrop
County about 25 miles east of Austin, and about 400 were in
emergency shelters, officials said.
Strong winds and drought conditions allowed the fire to travel
quickly over somewhat hilly terrain, burning through pine and cedar
trees and wiping out subdivisions as well as ranchland. The blaze
consumed as much as 25,000 acres along a line that stretched for
about 16 miles, Texas Forest Service officials said.
Huge clouds of smoke soared into the sky and hung over downtown
Bastrop, a town of about 6,000 people along the Colorado River. The
fire was far enough away from Austin that the city was not
threatened, officials said.
Firefighters lined up a state highway outside Bastrop and
converged around homes as they caught fire, hoping to save them.
Helicopters and planes loaded with water could be seen making laps
to and from the fire. When winds increased, flames would flare up
and pop out over the tops of trees.
The wildfire destroyed 476 homes, and about 250 firefighters
were working around the clock, using bulldozers and pumper trucks
against the fire, Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald said.
Mike Fischer, the county emergency management director, said the
fire is "nowhere near controlled," and that a separate, smaller
blaze south of the city was growing larger.
"I wasn't going to evacuate, but then the smoke got blacker and
blacker and it was like: `OK, time to go,"' said Gina Thurman, 47,
an analyst for the Texas Workforce Commission.
"Waiting is the most frustrating thing," she said, choking
back tears as she sat by herself in the shade on a curb outside
Ascension Catholic Church, one of several shelter sites. "You're
sitting there and you don't know anything but your house is
probably burning."
Rick Blakely, 54, said when it finally would be time to return
home, "I'm not expecting anything to be standing."
He was among about 30 people who slept on cots at the church.
"There was someone who asked how I was and it's a state of
shock," he said. "I just don't know what I'm going to do."
The new outbreak led Gov. Rick Perry to return home to Texas,
cutting short a visit to South Carolina where he was campaigning
for the Republican nomination for president. He also canceled a
trip to California.
Perry viewed the fire from the air and conferred with local
officials. He said seeing the fire was a "surreal" experience.
"I've seen a number of big fires in my life," he said. "This
is as mean looking as I've ever seen, particularly because it was
so close to the city."
Since December, wildfires in Texas have claimed 3.5 million
acres, an area the size of Connecticut, Perry said. The fires have
destroyed more than 1,000 homes, he said.
Perry said it was too early to say whether he would attend
Wednesday's GOP debate in California.
"I'm not paying attention to politics right now," he said.
"There will be plenty of time for that. People's lives and their
possessions are at stake, and that's substantially more
important."
Authorities mobilized ground and air forces to fight the largest
of at least 63 fires that broke out in Texas since Sunday as high
winds from what was then Tropical Storm Lee swept into Texas, which
has endured its worst drought since the 1950s.
"It's still putting up a lot of smoke and it's scary," Jan
Amen, a Texas Forest Service spokeswoman said.
School and school-related activities were canceled for Tuesday.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, and officials said
they knew of no residents trapped in their homes.
On Sunday, however, about 200 miles to the northeast in
Gladewater, a 20-year-old woman and her 18-month-old daughter died
when a fast-moving wildfire gutted their mobile home. That fire was
out Monday, although several other major blazes continued to burn
in at least four other counties in Central and North Texas.
At least two-thirds of the 6,000-acre Bastrop State Park, a
popular getaway just east of Bastrop, had been consumed, said Mike
Cox, with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. All nonessential
workers had been ordered out of the park.
"All I see is a wall of smoke," Cox said from the park's front
gate. The park is home to several historic rock and stone buildings
constructed in the 1930s and 1940s by the Civilian Conservation
Corps.
"We're desperately trying to save them," Cox said. "The fire
is getting closer and closer to that part of the park."
It's also home to the Houston toad, a 2- to 4-inch toad that's
been on the endangered species list since 1970.
Officials remained uncertain as to how the Bastrop blaze began,
but it appeared that two fires merged to form the "monster" fire,
Amen said.
To the west of Austin in Travis County, at least 20 homes were
lost and 30 others were damaged in another fire. More than 1,000
homes were under mandatory evacuation and 25 lost in a third fire
also in the Austin area.
Texas has experienced more than its share of destructive storms,
including Hurricane Ike three years ago. The state, however, would
have welcomed the rain that Tropical Storm Lee dumped on Gulf Coast
states farther east.
Instead, Texas got Lee's winds, which combined with an advancing
cold front to heighten the threat of blazes in a state where crews
have responded to nearly 21,000 wildfires since the traditional
fire season began early in the year.
Outdoor burning, including campfires and the burning of debris,
is prohibited in all but three of the 254 counties in Texas.
The governor's office said at least 40 Texas Forest Service
aircraft were involved in the firefighting Monday along with a
half-dozen Texas military aircraft. Since the beginning of the
wildfire season, local and state firefighters have responded to
more than 20,900 fires burning more than 3.6 million acres.
Joyce Payne, 62, and her husband, Mac, said they fled their
Bastrop-area home Sunday night, responding to orders delivered by
firefighters using a loudspeaker on a truck. She said their home
since 2006 now was gone.
"We had a swimming pool," she said. "Too bad there wasn't a
way to pump that water back out."
She said people have told her she that should cry, and added:
"I feel like crying."
---
Graczyk reported from Houston. Associated Press freelance
photographer Erich Chlegel contributed to this report.