CENTRAL TEXAS WILDFIRE DESTORY 23 Homes

[coldfront]

Wildfires Destroy 23 Homes in Central Texas
Sunday, March 01, 2009


Print ShareThisBASTROP, Texas — A wildfire fueled by grass, brush and trees has destroyed at least 23 homes and three businesses in central Texas.

Officials say two National Guard helicopters joined other aircraft Sunday in dropping water on the blaze near the towns of Bastrop and Smithville.

Gov. Rick Perry has activated state resources, including four Blackhawk helicopters equipped to drop water and fire retardant, firefighters and equipment.

The wildfire has charred just over a square mile since it was started Saturday by a fallen power line.

Texas Forest Service spokesman Lewis Kearney says the fire is about 50 percent contained.

He says some residents who were evacuated during the night were being escorted back into the area Sunday to identify their property.

Bastrop is about 30 miles southeast of Austin.

[JR3115]

As always, its going to be another long season for the Texas boys. Resources are already being called up through the Southeastern Compact. Maybe I'll get my shot at the longhorn state this year.

[NCKSFIRE]

Its going to be a long fire season here in Kansas too. Heavy fuel loads from a exceptionally wet 2008 season combined with a very dry winter makes for lots of fires. Two of the counties that our fire district operates in are under burn bans. 3rd one is not. Chief noticed smoke to the east of us in our 3rd county so we paged out 3 stations. Apparently someone had burned brush piles this weekend and the wind today spread the flames to some taller CRP grass. Good thing he saw the smoke. It was just getting ready to jump the road when we pulled in with the five trucks. Took a little over an hour to put it out. Burned just over 100 acres. I got our interface engine stuck. Hooked our other truck to it and it came right out. Last weekend I went to one Southeast of my house it burned about 640 acres. 5 districts responded to that one and about 16 trucks. It took about 4-5 hours to contain. It was started by a person burning trash.

[onlocation]

As always, its going to be another long season for the Texas boys. Resources are already being called up through the Southeastern Compact. Maybe I'll get my shot at the longhorn state this year.

IT HAS BEEN A LONG SEASON ALREADY, IN MY PART OF THE STATE WE HAVENT HAD NO MORE THAN 6-8" OF RAIN SINCE THE WET SUMMER OF 2007 AND STARTING THAT WINTER IS WHEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. IT IS GETTING SO DRY NOW, THAT MOST FIRES THAT WOULD PROBALBY ONLY BE A FEW ACRES ARE TURNING INTO 100 PLUS ACRES. AND NOW WITH THE STANDARD MARCH WINDS...WHO KNOWS. JUST IN THE LAST FOUR DAYS WE HAVE HAD 3 FIRES BURNING NEARLY 500 ACRES JUST IN OUR RESPONSE AREA ALONE. AND EVERY COUNTY AROUND US IS HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM. WE REQUESTED TEXAS FOREST SERVICE ON ONE THE OTHER DAY AND THEY TURNED US DOWN AS THEY WERE TIED UP IN BASTROP AND OTHER FIRES.
I DO KNOW FIREFIGHTERS ARE THANKFULL FOR THE OUT OF STATE HELP AS RESOURCES ARE BEGINNING TO GET SCARACE OR SCATTERED.

[PoorboyVFD]

Yeah, it is unbelievable how dry it is now. It just takes the smallest spark to get a good one going. We responded to a mutual aid call in Llano county about ten days ago to a fire that burned over 2000 acres in about four hours. Although there were quite a few houses and barns in the burn area, we didn't lose any structures. Another one this past week was started by an electrical crew changing a transformer and causing a spark.

Where I live we've had less than one inch of rain in the last six months, and that's way below normal, even for here. Hopefully we'll get a little rain this week. I just hope we don't get dry lightning strikes.

[JR3115]

Yes the poor Texas Forest Service is always stretched thin. Those guys/gals do alot considering the small number of personal they have state-wide. The Georgia Forestry Commission has twice as many personal as Texas and yet Texas is over twice the size of Georgia.