Fires sweep through parched Texas

CROSS PLAINS (AP) Thick smoke lingered over scorched homes and roads remained blocked Wednesday after one of the grass fires that raged across Texas consumed thousands of acres in this rural town.

A church and at least 25 homes were destroyed and flames burned down power poles in Cross Plains, a town of about 1,000 residents 150 miles southwest of Dallas.

“Houses are just burned down that nobody could ever get to,” said rancher Dean Dillard, a former city councilman. “Instantly, there were 15 or 20 houses on fire at same time and no way to get around to all of them.”

The blaze was one of the grass fires that burned across a drought-stricken, windy and unseasonably hot Texas on Tuesday, killing at least one person. Authorities believe they were mainly set by people ignoring fire bans and burning trash, shooting fireworks or tossing cigarettes on the crunchy, brown grass.

Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver called the wildfires the state's worst since February 1996, when 141 structures and 16,000 acres were destroyed around Poolville, about 40 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

Gov. Rick Perry deployed state firefighters, ordered use of Texas Army National Guard assets and requested assistance from the U.S. Forest Service. Firefighters from at least three other states were called in to help.

Perry issued a disaster declaration Tuesday after at least 73 fires were reported burning in the northern and central parts of the state.

One fire left an elderly woman dead, destroyed five homes and charred 5,000 acres Tuesday near Callisburg, a Cooke County community close to the Texas-Oklahoma border.

Firefighters weren't able to reach the woman, who had apparently fallen and broken her hip, Weaver said.

Children playing with fireworks days before the New Year apparently started fires Tuesday in Granbury and Kennedale, near Fort Worth.

“Normally it's not a big deal to play with fireworks in Texas in December, but it's so dry this year that it's extremely dangerous,” Weaver said.

The Granbury fire spread to three neighborhoods, destroying at least 20 homes. A dozen firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation, Weaver said.

In Kennedale, residents used garden hoses and buckets of water to try and save their homes as stretched-thin firefighters tried to extinguish flames on other houses and buildings. Winds help spread the fire across about 100 acres. The blaze jumped U.S. Highway 287 and prompted authorities to temporarily shut it down and evacuate two apartment buildings as a precaution.

Three firefighters were hospitalized with smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion while assisting with the Kennedale fire, Arlington Battalion Chief David Stapp said. “It looked like the world was on fire,” Stapp said. “For the first 30 minutes or so, we were driving around trying to get a grip on what the most threatening areas were. There were flames 30 to 40 feet high, just a wall of flames.”

North Texas was under a National Weather Service “red flag warning,” issued because strong winds, low humidity and extremely dry conditions could cause blazes to spread rapidly. The wildfire threat level was expected to remain high through January.

Many of Texas' 254 counties are experiencing drought conditions after averaging just 21.5 inches of rain in the first 11 months of 2005, down from the norm of 26.

Dillard, the Cross Plains rancher, said he was able to soak the land around his 72-year-old mother's home and save it, but as many as 10 nearby homes were destroyed. He said his own home and those surrounding it on the south side of town were untouched by the fire.

Dillard, who sent his family out of town as the fire approached, said the scene is not something he will soon forget.

“It looked like we had been bombed in a big war, the whole city was on fire everywhere,” he said.

The National Weather Service says there is a slight chance of rainfall on Friday but offers little hope of significant rainfall in East Texas at least through the next week.

The Gregg-Rusk-Smith counties area normally receives about 48 inches of rain per year but this year has only seen about 29 inches.

Violating a burn ban can earn a fine of up to $500 plus liability for fire damage.