Thread: Wildfire destroys 300 homes near Austin, Texas (NOW 1,000)

Wildfire destroys 300 homes near Austin, Texas

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press
Monday, September 5, 2011
(09-05) 09:27 PDT Bastrop, Texas (AP) --

A wildfire burning southeast of Austin, Texas, destroyed about 300 homes and was advancing unchecked on Monday through parched ranchland along a 16-mile front, authorities said.

The fire, one of dozens that crews were battling throughout the drought-stricken state, had blackened some 17,500 acres but was not threatening the state capital, as it was about 30 miles from the city and headed the opposite way. But the ferocity and speed with which it was moving made it unsafe to fight from the ground, Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Jan Amen said.

"It's a monster, and it's zero percent contained" Amen said.

Instead, the state was scrambling its firefighting air fleet, including National Guard helicopters and four heavy tanker planes. It also was bringing in a tanker from South Dakota.

The blaze was the largest of dozens of wildfires burning throughout the state, including 63 that had started since Sunday. Texas is enduring its worst drought since the 1950s, and the wildfire threat has been exacerbated by powerful wind gusts cast off by Tropical Storm Lee, hundreds of miles to the east.

The fires led Gov. Rick Perry to cut short a visit to South Carolina and cancel a planned trip to California, Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for his Republican presidential campaign, said in a statement.

Among Texas' many weekend fires was one more than 200 miles to the northeast, in Gladewater, where a 20-year-old woman and her 18-month-old daughter were killed Sunday when they were unable to escape from a fast-moving blaze that consumed their mobile home. That fire was eventually extinguished.

"Today is just as bad," Amen said Monday.

No injuries were reported from the Bastrop County fire near Austin, but several subdivisions were ordered evacuated on Sunday after it broke out. Authorities hadn't determined how it started.

Nearly half of Bastrop State Park, a 6,000-acre preserve east of Bastrop, was gone, KVUE-TV in Austin reported.

"It's huge," a woman at the park office who declined to identify herself said Monday from the park office. "It's all over."

The park and several major highways in the area were closed but a handful of people whose RV's were left overnight in the popular park were being allowed in to retrieve them, she said.

Texas has experienced more than its share of destructive storms, including Hurricane Ike three years ago. But the state's anxious farmers and ranchers would have welcomed the rain that Tropical Storm Lee dumped instead on Gulf Coast states further east. Instead of water, Texas got winds, which combined with an advancing cold front to heighten the wildfire threat.

All but three of the 254 counties in Texas were under outdoor burn bans.

A wildfire in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park destroyed two homes and damaged two others Sunday. Wildfires also prompted evacuations of other neighborhoods in Cedar Park and some in some suburbs.

In Corsicana, about 50 miles south of Dallas, a wildfire destroyed eight metal industrial shop buildings. Mayor Chuck McClanahan said fire crews were fighting to keep the flames from reaching wooden structures.

Eight miles south of Corsicana, the roughly 200 residents of Navarro and those living in a rural area outside of town fled for safety because of three separate blazes that had burned some 2,000 acres, Navarro County Judge H.M. Davenport said.

Ronnie Willis, who owns a pasture just east of the Corsicana fire, said embers from the industrial park blaze burned his field and he could only watch as the flames advanced toward two massive indoor arenas he owns.

"My prayer is it doesn't burn up the buildings," he told the Corsicana Daily Sun. "The grass will grow back. If it doesn't hurt an animal or burn up the buildings, we can live through it. I just feel sorry for the people whose businesses are being destroyed."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z1X66oubzK

Main hiway running through Bastrop.

Wow.... what a picture.

Central Texas fires round up

By Macy Hurwitz
Monday, 05 September 2011

Fires continue to burn across the Central Texas region as an historic drought, high winds and a holiday weekend produce unprecedented fire conditions.

"We’ve certainly had drought cycles in Texas before and we will in the future, but the combination that we have right now with the exceptional drought, the combination of that and high winds and low humidies and then topping it all off with the holiday weekend and all the recreational activities, is a volatile combination and quite unusual," said Gary Oldham, public safety consultant.

Texas Forest Service responded to 63 new fires Sept. 4 that burned 32,936 acres, including 22 new large fires. Large fires are those that involve 100 acres of timber, 300 acres of lighter fuels or in which homes were lost. Across the state, 251 of 254 counties are under burn bans.

Travis County:

Steiner Ranch fire continues to burn: Officials asking residents not to park along RR 620 to observe fire. Evacuees were sent to Vandegrift High School.

Leander Independent School District has announced that the three elementary schools and the middle school in Steiner Ranch will be closed Sept. 6. Superintendent Bret Champion said the district has not made a decision about whether Vandegrift High School and Four Points Middle School will open. He advised LISD parents to refer to the district's website for updates.

Pflugerville fires contained, residents allowed to return to their homes: Pflugerville spokeswoman Terri Waggoner said Fire Chief Ron Moellenberg with Emergency Services District #2 told her the fires are controlled which means there is no more forward motion. Pflugerville Pfire is working on several grassfires, but no homes are evacuated.

Williamson County:

Williamson County Judge Dan Gattis issued a Declaration of Disaster Sept. 5 due to the imminent threat of wildfires. The declaration activates the Williamson County Emergency Management Plan and bans any outdoor flame outside a proper receptacle, improper disposal of smoking materials and welding outdoors.

A fire in Cedar Park destroyed two homes, damaged several others

A structure fire in Hutto on Lemons Avenue at a two-story house is now contained and in mop up phase. Hutto Fire Department was assisted by the Taylor, Weir, Round Rock and Georgetown fire departments.

Cedar Park Police Association is asking for donations of water, Gatorade or money for the emergency services personnel involved in the Central Texas wildfires. Bring donations by the Cedar Park Police Department, 911 Quest Parkway, today between 3p.m. and 5 p.m.

Hays County:

Hays County officials said Travis County fires near northwest Hays County are near the county line, but have not crossed into Hays County as of 8:30 a.m. Sept. 5. Residents living in the Stagecoach Ranch in Dripping Springs are have been evacuated to a shelter at Dripping Springs Middle School, 111 Tiger Lane, Dripping Springs. Click here for more information.

Helpful links:

To register to receive Emergency Notification System notifications to a cell phone, visit http://wireless.capcog.org .

Animals rescued from animal shelters in Bastrop County have been taken to Austin Pets Alive! who will be offering free adoptions all day Sept. 5.

Click here for current Texas wildfire information from the Texas Forest Service, and here for tips on how to avoid wildfires.

The City of Austin Homeland Security and Emergency Management will post updates on area fires.

Follow Impact News on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

http://impactnews.com/leander-cedar-par ... s-round-up

Austin-area wildfire burns a record 476 homes in Texas

By Karen Brooks
AUSTIN, Texas | Mon Sep 5, 2011 7:50pm EDT

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A massive wildfire east of the Texas state capital of Austin has destroyed 476 homes since Sunday and is still burning out of control, state officials said on Monday.

"I'm still seeing no containment," said April Saginor, public information officer for the Texas Forest Service, who confirmed that the Bastrop County Complex Fire has scorched more than 25,000 acres and burned 476 residences so far.

"That's a record in Texas for a single fire," she said of the homes destroyed.

The Bastrop fire is one of more than sixty fires which have kindled across Texas since Sunday afternoon, fueled by the gusty winds generated as Tropical Storm Lee pushed by in the Gulf of Mexico as it made landfall in Louisiana.

"The winds and the number of fires that are happening around Central Texas has caused a real strain on firefighters around this area," Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald told reporters.

The Bastrop County area about 30 miles east of Austin is no stranger to wildfires, with rural brush common, residents said. But the speed the fire showed in spreading took everyone by surprise, and 19 subdivisions in the county of about 70,000 people saw evacuations in the last 24 hours.

Many people who were evacuated said they left with only the clothes on their backs, while others managed to escape with a handful of family photos.

"There was a policeman that started hollering through a big megaphone, telling us to get out of our houses immediately, now!" said a woman who lives in one of the Bastrop County subdivisions.

"This fire is nowhere near being under control," Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Fisher said.

Fisher said a second fire has broken out southwest of the main fire, in southwestern Bastrop County. But he said crews were finally been able to contain the main fire north of the Colorado River, and he was confident it is not likely to move into more populated areas west of the main fire zone.

Saginor said more than 250 firefighters were working on the Bastrop fire, which stretches for 16 miles with a breadth of six miles in some spots.

The Texas Forest Service said heavy air tankers have been brought in from as far away as South Dakota, and all day they have been dumping tons of water on fires all day long.

"We are also using bulldozers to create firebreaks, we are using many fire engines, we are attacking the fire directly, and we hope to have aircraft working all day," Fisher said.

Additional mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for various parts of Bastrop and also Travis County, where the city of Austin is located and is the scene of the 150 acre Steiner Ranch Fire, which had destroyed 25 homes by Monday and prompted the evacuation of more than 1000 homes.

"We know that this is tough on people who have been evacuated," said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell. "Especially since there is no set time for people to return."

Schools have been canceled tomorrow in the fire zone, and the Red Cross has opened several shelters to house evacuees.

"This is far from over," Leffingwell said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/ ... IH20110905

I hope everyone that lives n Texas is safe, and away from this fire.

The picture TexasBorn posted really showed what a monster fire this has become.

I do not even see how you can drive if the fire were on either side of the road. Much less this fire looks like it is all over.

I was hoping that Lee's path would include Texas , for it has been a non stop monsoon .

This plane looks so little in comparison to the thousand feet of smoke it is flying into. Incredible!



http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_ ... 156414.php

Uncontrolled Central Texas wildfires pushed by wind
By Colin McDonald
cmcdonald@express-news.net
Updated 05:44 p.m., Monday, September 5, 2011

Planes drop fire retardant on wildfires in the Bastrop, Texas area Monday September 5, 2011.
Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT/jdavenport@express-news.net, JOHN DAVENPORT / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

BASTROP — Strong winds, low humidity and tinder dry grass, shrubs and tree limbs from a yearlong drought are fueling the largest fires Central Texas has seen in generations — and it's only growing.

According to the Texas Forest Service and Bastrop County officials, no part of the 25,000-acre Bastrop Complex Fire is contained. And another fire has started in the Southwest corner of the county.

Both fires are growing and moving, as they are being pushed by the strong afternoon winds. The forest service is reporting 63 new fires across Texas since yesterday, for a total of 32,000 burned acres.

Gov. Rick Perry is expected to fly into Bastrop this afternoon to see the fire and address the public.

From a gas station on Highway 21, Christopher Humphrey watched as black plumes erupted into the thousand-foot-high wall of gray smoke that now is the backdrop for the town of Bastrop and the surrounding area.

“Black smoke means a house or car just went up,â€

Was driving home from north size of Round Rock this evening and the sky was so full of smoke out toward Bastrop that it looked like a giant thunderstorm on the horizon. Can also see the western horizon full of smoke from the wildfire at Steiner Ranch. That entire area will remain evacuated for at least another day.

We are in big trouble! Where's Obama? Fiddling again.

It's not just forest fires, it's grass fires too. We have 200 ft. tall pines and prairie grass in Texas. One dumb ass with a cigaret can kill a lot of people and animals. Some local water supplies are critical and they don't have the water to even put out a fire.

Dixie

Texas officials: 1,000 homes burned in past week

Updated 1h 27m ago

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – More than 1,000 homes have burned in at least 57 wildfires across rain-starved Texas, most of them in one devastating blaze close to Austin that's still raging out of control, officials said Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference near one of the fire-ravaged areas, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said more than 100,000 acres have burned in the drought-stricken state.

Perry, who interrupted his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination to rush home, said more than 1,000 houses have burned since Monday, but Texas emergency management chief Nim Kidd subsequently said that number of homes has actually been lost in the past week.

PHOTOS: Texas wildfires destroy homes
The Texas Forest Service says nearly 600 of the torched homes were in Bastrop County, some 25 miles from Austin. The agency said that blaze was still uncontained Tuesday.

Calmer winds Tuesday were expected to help in the battle against wildfires that flared up when strong winds fed by Tropical Storm Lee swept across Texas over Labor Day weekend.

Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Victoria Koenig said it was too early to say how much progress was made fighting the wildfire in Bastrop County overnight. The agency says the fire has grown to 30,000 acres.

"It's encouraging we don't have winds right now, not like yesterday," Koenig said early Tuesday.

Even with the encouraging conditions, Koenig said it was a "tough, tough fire" that was raging through rugged terrain, including a ridge of hills.

"You can still see the hills glowing quite a bit," she said.

At least 5,000 people were forced from their homes in Bastrop County, and about 400 were in emergency shelters, officials said Monday. School and school-related activities were canceled Tuesday.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wildfir ... 50273608/1