Winds fuel flare-ups in Palo Pinto County, across state
Strong north winds fueled fire outbreaks around Possum Kingdom Lake on Sunday and firefighters managed to contain most of them, but the rest of Texas was not so lucky as thousands of acres and hundreds of houses burned in another day of the worst season wildfires in state history.
A forest fire is estimated at 16 miles long, near the suburb of Austin in Bastrop charred about 14,000 acres Sunday, destroyed or damaged about 300 homes.
"It's catastrophic," said Mark Stanford, Fire Chief of the Texas Forest Service on Sunday. "It is a major natural disaster."
More than 40 fires were recorded new for the Texas Forest Service on Sunday as high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation firefighters struggling to extinguish fires left all over the state.
"We are reaching out to this point," said Tom Berglund Texas Forest Service on Sunday.
As of Sunday afternoon, firefighters still contained only 75 percent of the fires in Palo Pinto County, estimated to have burned 6555 acres and destroyed 39 homes near the lake on Tuesday.
Texas 16 in Palo Pinto County is open on Sundays. The communities around the Cliffs Resort Possum Kingdom Lake was closed, but some residents were permitted, escorted by authorities to check their homes.
Palo Pinto County Sheriff Ira Mercer said Sunday that authorities would no longer be in the tourism community from today.
Three helicopters with buckets to collect water from a lake, and firefighters rushed to outbreaks around the lake for most of Sunday.
"We were lucky today," said April Phillips Texas Forest Service, which is assigned to the area of Possum Kingdom Lake. "I'm surprised there is nothing worse because of the winds."
Phillips said the firefighters had been planning for high winds for two days.
Mercer also said he expected the winds to create problems for firefighters.
"We thought it would be hell today," said Mercer. "But it was a good day for us."
Donations and support have begun to pour in Palo Pinto County for residents who lost homes to wildfires last week.
Tony Greer McKinney, a volunteer firefighter from Princeton, began a fund to help Possum Kingdom This volunteer firefighter Ed Shelton, whose house was burned while fighting the grass fire last week.
Donations can be made to Ed and Nancy Shelton Fire Relief Fund at any Wells Fargo bank in North Texas.
"We will probably expand it to help others in the community," Greer said Sunday.
Greer was motivated to help see television news reports Wednesday to fight grass fires Shelton as his house was destroyed.
"I knew I had to help in any way," said Greer.
While firefighters were able to maintain control of forest fires in Possum Kingdom Lake on Sunday, grass fires in other parts of the state were racing through grass.
A wildfire that quickly moves in Bastrop, where dozens of homes were damaged or burned to the ground, continued to burn out of control Sunday night. Bastrop is about 30 miles southeast of Austin.
Grass fires that began Sunday morning, blackened about 3,000 acres in Limestone County west of Waco.
Forest fires in eastern and central Texas forced the evacuation of several homes on Sunday.
Since the fire season began in November, firefighters in the state have responded to more than 20,600 wildfires have burned more than 3.5 million hectares, a state record.
The prognosis is not good for firefighters throughout the state. Hot, dry conditions are expected to continue for weeks. As of Sunday, about 81 percent of the state was in exceptional drought, the highest category of drought, according to the Texas Forest Service.
This report includes material from The Associated Press and the Austin American-Statesman.Winds fuel flare-ups in Palo Pinto County, across state
