Texas is burning...AGAIN

[hemibee]

Texas is burning again, 14,000 acres and 300+ homes involved as of the latest report in Bastrop, 150 acres in Walker County and around 1,500 acres in Colorado County. T.S. Lee brought high winds to Texas and no rains causing all counties in Texas to have the fire hazard to be elevated to Extreme Fire Danger.

http://www.kvue.com/

by ALBERT RAMON / KVUE News
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 7:19 AM
Updated today at 8:26 AM


Gallery See all 15 photos »




Fires across Central Texas propelled partly by the high winds caused by Tropical Storm Lee burned thousands of acres. The entire state is under a red flag warning due to the fire danger.
Nearly half of the Bastrop State Park has burned, as have hundreds of homes. Crews have continued to battle the fire all night long. What started as two fires east of the city of Bastrop merged into one. The fire is moving south and is now well south of the Bastrop State Park and has reached FM 2571. That road connects Highway 304 and Smithville.
The Texas Forest Service estimates over 14, 000 acres have burned, along with at least 300 homes. Officials will release another damage update this morning.
The fire is 16 miles long and six miles wide. The Texas Forest Service warns people down wind of the fire, to be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice.
As for what triggered the fire, that remains unknown. But a combination of dry air, gusty winds, and our historic drought have come together to produce dangerous fire conditions area-wide.
Monday may be even worse. A front will push through producing wind gusts of at least 40 miles per hour.

Link to three KVUE Videos

KTRK Video & Report Link

COLUMBUS, TX (KTRK) -- High winds and the ongoing dry conditions are fueling wildfires throughout the state.

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Story: Woman and young daughter killed in wildfire
More: Viewer photos and videos of wildfires
Photos:Images of wildfire in Colorado Co.

The biggest concentration and the latest of those wildfires are currently outside Austin, specifically in Bastrop. A fire there has burned more than 14,000 acres and is 16 miles long.
The massive wildfire has destroyed more than 300 homes and more are still in danger. County officials are going door-to door to tell people to leave their homes.
Five shelters have been set up for evacuees. Engines and dozers are on their way to Bastrop to help local crews.
At least one-third of Bastrop State Park has been burned. Officials say this fire shows no signs of slowing.
Another fire is burning in the central Texas area. In Pflugerville, crews are working to protect homes threatened by flames. That fire has consumed about 200 acres. A total of three separate grass fires erupted there Sunday afternoon.
You may have noticed the smell of smoke here in Houston when you woke up. And part of that may be due to a number of smaller wildfires that broke out in our area yesterday. One of those was up in Walker County. The Department of Public Safety says that fire burned 150 acres around FM 1696 near I-45. At one point, firefighters had to evacuated a few homes and close down the highway. Fire crews tell us that fire is now out and the road is back open.
Out in Katy, crews from a number of fire departments battled a large wildfire off the Katy Freeway near the Grand Parkway. Crews say the high winds caused some power lines to arch and that sparked the fire. Sixty acres quickly burned up due to the wild conditions. That fire is also under control.
And another fire burned in Colorado county right off I-10. Witnesses say two homes have burned so far and fire officials have several others evacuated. The fire is about 1,500 acres in size and as of last night, it was only about 25 percent contained.
If you have photos and/or video of one of today's grass fires, you can send them in to be featured online. Upload them to iWitness.abc13.com or email them to [email protected].

(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

We currently have fires burning 25 miles north of our home in the Huntsville area, 50 miles southwest in Columbus and 80 miles west southwest in Bastrop and 100 miles west in Travis County. Multiple smaller fires have been popping up around us in Montgomery and Harris counties but fortunately they have been caught while still small. This could get interesting if we don't get some rain soon and the dry winds continue.

I'll up date this thread as more information is available.

 

[DaveM]

Wow this is bad, I need to look at it all on the PC when I get home later

 

[Rocky]

Bad news indeed!!!
It's so heart breaking when innocent people get burned, flooded out, etc., and lose everything.

 

[keystiger]

Wish I could send you this rain Hemi, been raining since Friday morning non stop, couple small tornadoes in the area, 1 about 5 miles from my house, however we are very fortunate to not have the fire issue. That is horrible.

I hope they can get them under control soon. ANd get folks taken care of.

 

[hemibee]

Fire activity map, current in progress fires. Those that were extinguish yesterday or last week are not on the map.

http://ticc.tamu.edu/Response/FireActivity/default.aspx

I just heard from a friend with the Austin Fire Department; "We're having fun now! Oh

, gonna need more hose!!!"

Latest reports the Bastrop fire has jumped the biggest fire line in the area, US Highway 71 and not looking good for those between 71 and Interstate 10. No update on acres now involved but it's going to be a good bit higher before it gets better.


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[hemibee]

The latest info, the fire now has a name.

Fire Name: Bastrop County Complex
County: Bastrop
Start Date: 09/04/2011
Acres: 25000
Percent Contained: 0%


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[The Seeker]

It's raining there as I type though.

I'm watching the Pirates -vs- Astros game on TV and people have umbrellas and ponchos on.

 

[hemibee]

But aren't they in Pittsburgh today?

 

[The Seeker]

LOL....yeah!

I just logged back on to say how dumb that was....I wasn't even paying attention...they're in PITTSBURGH!!

 

[hemibee]

The fires are a little closer now, views of the new Tamina grass and woods fire taken from my office window.

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[hemibee]

The Bastrop fire has gotten so bad they are trying to locate former firefighters and retired firefighters to assist them. They do not have the manpower to attack the fire or to be truly defensive in the approach to fighting the fire.

Additional photos.

40 firefighters, park rangers, game wardens and LEO's are battling to save the historic depression area structures in the 6000 acre Bastrop State Park.

Filling up for another air drop

This is on the southwest side of Houston, 50 miles south of the fire that is burning 20 miles west of my house.

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[DaveM]

Wow Tony take care this is terrible :y8: For me there is nothing more scary than an out of control fire and my heart goes out to all those that have been affected by this one

 

[CarlS]

+1 Dave. It is terrible. Florida was in this situation in 1998. We were burning from form the panhandle to the Everglades. Many, many homes were lost. The entire population of Flagler county was mandatorily evacuated. Only a last second wind shift kept the fire from jumping the Intracostal Waterway and spared the barrier island. That same wind shift spared the Princess Place Preserve. Flagler County had martialed all of the county equipment to try to save the irreplaceable historic structures at Princess Place.

Though I was TDY in Arizona at the time, the farm fields and the farmers irrigating their fields spared my house in Hastings from burning. My heart goes out to those folks in Texas.

 

[Ksquared]

This is horrendous - and apparently getting worse.

Tony, be careful.

 

[hemibee]

The Bastrop fire has now exceeded 30,000 acres and over 600 homes completely destroyed with 0% containment. The fire has jumped the Colorado River twice since yesterday afternoon. Officials are saying the fire will get worse before they can get it contained. Firefighters from across the state and nation continue to arrive in the area.

The cause of the Walker County fire just north of my house has been determined to have been cause by an 18 wheeler that blew a tire. The fire is now contained.

The Tamina fire is under control and contained. The source of the fire was a commercial mulch pile.


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[hemibee]

I just received an email update from a local newspaper with the subject; "Feds step in, you won't believe what they are doing!"

FEDS TAKE OVER BASTROP FIRE
Filed Tue, Sep 6, 2011 by Scott EngleFire and EMS, Local / Area News, WILDFIRE UPDATES, WILDFIRES
FEDS TO ASSUME CONTROL OF BASTROP CO. FIRE; VOLUNTEER FIREMEN TURNED AWAY


By Dave Mundy/[email protected]
Posted September 6, 2011 – 2:51pm
BASTROP — Firefighting-trained volunteers from around the state converged on Bastrop and Smithville Tuesday to lend a hand to the beleaguered local firefighters battling the Bastrop County Complex Fire, only to be sent away as federal officials arrived at the scene and took command.
“We were at the station getting set up into strike teams, and this guy came up and said that the U.S. Forest Service had ‘assumed control of the situation, and that ‘If you don’t have a vehicle that squirts water, go home,’” said Gordon Greer of Kirbyville, who drove all night Monday to arrive in the town beset by the worst wildfire in Texas history. “You’ve got guys who had driven all night long from Corpus Christi and Brownsville on their own dime, and they turned them away. He was really a (bleep) about it.
“There was a whole line of beige cars that came in this morning, tinted windows and such,” Greer said.
A spokesperson with the U.S. National Interagency Incident Center, Jennifer Jones, confirmed that federal group of several different agencies would be assuming command in Bastrop County around 1 p.m. Tuesday, but had not done so when the firefighting volunteers were told to leave. April Saginor with the Texas Forest Service said her agency had not made any such order, to her knowledge, but promised to provide an update later in the day.
Several of the volunteers voiced their displeasure at federal agents taking charge at the scene after appeals by Texas Gov. Rick Perry for federal aid following another series of wildfires earlier this year was turned down.
“They’re willing to sacrifice the lives of the people of Bastrop just so they can come in here and pull rank,” said Daniel Miller of Nederland, who had led a group of Texas Nationalist Movement members who were certified firefighters to Bastrop from the Beaumont area. Miller said he and several other members of the group would remain in the Bastrop area to aid with civilian relief efforts.

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[otherwise]

I don't know any of the politics involved in that story but when we have similar fire emergency we all pull together and keep any personal issues for the debrief after the fire is out. Best of luck mate, I've seen too many bad ones close to my home.

 

[hemibee]

It all stems from when Governor Perry refused federal money due to the strings attached that would have been violations of the Texas Constitution and Perry was pretty outspoken about the attempt of the fed to go around our laws to get what they wanted. Several months later when Northwest Texas was burning Perry asked for fed assistance and was turned down. It was the Fed's punishment for not accepting the conditions of the earlier Fed assistance.

Here's the fire map as of 1500 local time.

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[hemibee]

One of our hare scramble race sites was a little south of Bastrop. The fire is just north of the ranch we raced on, to the right in this photo. I expect to hear in the morning that the ranch has burned. A problem with this ranch is going to be all the oil field equipment in service around the ranch.

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[DaveM]

Yeah well I am also at a loss how you guys work as the first point of business should be to get the fire sorted and then worry about the red tape after that