Wildfires in North Texas

[3afan]

prettyscary .............

http://www.wfaa.com/ (http://www.wfaa.com)

[HighSchool Fan]

north of Callisburg is another hugh grassfire. one of our drivers had a cousin die today in that fire. let's all pray that the winds slow down so the fireman can get these fires put out and also pray that no one else loses a life because of these fires.

[LH Panther Mom]

Ditto, HSF. Things can get out of control in a very short time.

[sinton3055]

On my way to Houston Victoria had about 3-4 grass fires right off 59, it is very dry down those parts. Not sure what the cause but if you do smoke keep them inside the car if you smoke

[West22]

HUGE FIRE BETWEEN KENNEDALE AND ARLINGTON THIS AFTERNOON.HWY 287 WAS SHUT DOWN .

[DU_stud04]

i also heard that cross plains...near abilene, is also on fire, last i heard was 20 houses were gone and 1 death....

[mwynn05]

Originally posted by West22
HUGE FIRE BETWEEN KENNEDALE AND ARLINGTON THIS AFTERNOON.HWY 287 WAS SHUT DOWN . We drove past it today on the way back from FW

[mrescape43]

KTXS news just reported that 56 homes were destroyed and one person has died in Cross Plains. My Nephew works for Abilene Airport fire dept and he has been down there since yesterday. I am really surprised that the Texas Forest Service didn't call us here in Snyder to send the tanker that we received on a TFS Grant. All these folks need to be in all our prayers and thoughts.

[STANG RED]

I heard all roads leading into Cross Plains were closed to traffic except for emergency vehicles only.

[GreenMonster]

Michael Martin Murphy...."She ran callin' Wildfire....wildfire...she ran callin' wiiiiiiild fiiiiiiire"

[lepfan]

Originally posted by GreenMonster
Michael Martin Murphy...."She ran callin' Wildfire....wildfire...she ran callin' wiiiiiiild fiiiiiiire"

We came through OKC yesterday...there were fires everywhere. A huge one SE of Shawnee and then another in Mustang...if my memory serves me MANY homes were destroyed there and they found a man who had been killed in the fire. In SE Oklahoma (where we were for Christmas) they had major fires last night...I think there were 3 or 4 homes destroyed in/around the little town of Boswell...some in the Jumbo community also. This is wild!:eek:

[wos fan1]

Not a good situation..:eek:

[GreenMonster]

Originally posted by lepfan
We came through OKC yesterday...there were fires everywhere. A huge one SE of Shawnee and then another in Mustang...if my memory serves me MANY homes were destroyed there and they found a man who had been killed in the fire. In SE Oklahoma (where we were for Christmas) they had major fires last night...I think there were 3 or 4 homes destroyed in/around the little town of Boswell...some in the Jumbo community also. This is wild!:eek:

Jill, we've had plenty ourselves. Everything is so dry it's like dropping a match on gasoline.

[wos fan1]

If i remember right if you guys don't get rain during the Winter your really in trouble with Spring and Summer around the corner.

[lepfan]

Originally posted by GreenMonster
Jill, we've had plenty ourselves. Everything is so dry it's like dropping a match on gasoline.

I know...at my mom and dad's and at my in laws....the cattle and horses would walk around and the dust would fly...I drove over Hugo Lake in Choctaw County...it was nothing but sand dunes with little patches of water...a far cry from the big lake it used to be. The Kiamichi River is so low it is not flowing in...I have never in my life seen things so dry down there. :( Mom and Dad's ponds are both almost dry!

[GreenMonster]

Originally posted by wos fan1
If i remember right if you guys don't get rain during the Winter your really in trouble with Spring and Summer around the corner. Water supplies have dwindled in the last 5 years or so. Iowa Park used to make it's own drinking water but the EXTREMELY low levels of the 2 community lakes forced our community into a new water contract with the City of Wichita Falls to supply us with drinking water.

[wos fan1]

Not good. If ya'll don't get rain before Spring you haven't seen bad yet!

[GreenMonster]

Originally posted by wos fan1
Not good. If ya'll don't get rain before Spring you haven't seen bad yet! we are good for a while. Wichita Falls just built a new reverse osmosis water treatment plant which will allow them access to 2 additional lakes that were previously deemed too salty to treat for drinking water.

[Leopards,class of 75]

Originally posted by wos fan1
Not good. If ya'll don't get rain before Spring you haven't seen bad yet! AMEN to that! We had special prayer tonight for rain at our church. I know that it comes from above and I pray that we get caught up on the rain way before Spring time.

[GreenMonster]

mine

[The One]

From the Ft. Worth Star Telegram:

The burning prairie
Cross Plains a town in ruins after deadly fire swept through
By CHRIS VAUGHNSTAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERCROSS PLAINS -- Hell came to town Tuesday.

With roaring, wind-swept flames leaping across streets, a choking black smoke obscuring the entire town, turning into an ominous orange hue when night fell, there seemed no other description for what happened in Cross Plains.

Even the Methodist church went up in flames.

"I've never been to hell, but I would imagine that's what it looks like," Callahan County Sheriff Eddie Curtis said.

Cross Plains, a farming town of 1,000 people about 130 miles southwest of Fort Worth, smoldered and stunk all day Wednesday as some people stared blankly at the ashes of their houses and others gave thanks that theirs had been spared.

In a matter of an afternoon, a fire that started in a bar ditch along Texas 36 killed two women, destroyed 116 houses, scorched 7,600 acres and moved so fast that cattle lay blackened and dead on fence lines.

"I've never seen something like this before," said Ron Perry of the Texas Forest Service. "People get so complacent. 'Oh, it's just a little old grassfire.' You can see what a little old grassfire did."

Firefighters found a 89-year-old woman in her burned-out home late Tuesday night, state trooper Sparky Dean said. Maudie L. Sheppard, who was bedridden, lived with her son on County Road 421.

On Wednesday morning, firefighters found Mattie Faye Wilson, 67, in her house on Main Street, Dean said.

A house-to-house search was conducted, but authorities expected no other deaths.

"We think we've got everybody accounted for," Justice of the Peace Rolan Jones said.

Officials were attempting to put a dollar figure on the property and agricultural losses, which they said will easily reach millions of dollars. Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to visit Cross Plains today.

The state death toll from the fire also included a Cooke County woman who apparently fell while helping her husband douse the grass around their house, a Gainesville fire official said. A fourth death was reported in Yeager, Okla., where fire destroyed eight homes. No details were available late Wednesday about either death.

The Cross Plains fire started about 12:30 p.m. about five miles west of town. Although officials don't know the cause, they suspect that it could have been a cigarette butt or perhaps a car that idled too long on the shoulder of the road.

But the dry conditions, low humidity and 25 to 30 mph winds quickly turned the tide against the Cross Plains Fire Department.
Firefighters, both paid and volunteer, poured in from neighboring towns and counties, from towns as far away as Brady and Stamford, both about 80 miles from Cross Plains.

The Abilene fire chief took command. Dyess Air Force Base sent crews. Empty milk tankers filled up with water in Cisco and moved into town to refill firetrucks.

Electricity and gas were shut off to the town. State troopers closed all highways, and hundreds of people fled while hundreds more stayed to do what they could.

It was late Tuesday night before firefighters gained control of the blaze, mostly by bulldozing a firebreak around the city.
"If there hadn't been 30 departments here, we would have lost the whole town," Jones said.

Arlinda Williams, the chief 911 dispatcher for Callahan County, was trying to coordinate the radio traffic in Cross Plains and for a big fire burning near Baird in the northern half of the county.
In the middle of it all, she took a phone call from the National Weather Service. "They told me our entire county was on fire, judging from their satellite images," Williams said. "Like I didn't know that."

James and Lucille Koenig's recently remodeled house on the north end of town was one of the many that were reduced to little more than bricks and the remnants of kitchen appliances.
They barely had enough time to get James' elderly mother out of the house before flames moved in. Everything they owned was gone in a matter of minutes.

"He said it was like a firestorm," said James' son, James Koenig. "You couldn't run fast enough to get away from it."
Patricia Cook, the wife of a state trooper stationed in Cross Plains, was with her daughter at a basketball tournament in a nearby town. Her son called her from home and told her the fire was moving closer.

"I told him to run," she said. "As I hot-footed it back here, I had resigned myself to whatever happened. I prayed to God, 'If I have a house, I'll be grateful. If I don't have a house, I'll still be grateful because I'll have my children.' "

It turns out she has her house.

A street away, Sam Fleming had pulled garden hoses all around his house and his neighbor's, trying for hours to save them. His next-door neighbor's house was on fire, and the Methodist church behind him was burning. Embers flew everywhere.

A state trooper pulled up and told him he had to leave.

"I told him he wasn't big enough to take me out of here, so another trooper showed up," Fleming said. "I wasn't happy about them making me leave, and by God, I'm not happy about it today either. I'm 75 years old, and I should be able to stay with my property."

After a sleepless night, Fleming and his wife, Eva, returned to find their house still standing. All they lost was a car and a trailer.
Jim Senkel, pastor of First United Methodist Church, answered his phone while he was in Graham on Tuesday afternoon. It was a member of his church.

"He told me the fire was encroaching" on the church parsonage, he said. "He called me back a few minutes later and said, 'The trees are exploding. I have to run for my life.' By the time I got here, the house was completely gone and 90 percent of the church was gone."

The monument-type sign in front of the church survived, though. On Wednesday, it said that Sunday's service would be in the parking lot.

Senkel and his wife were left with few possessions except some Corningware and a riding mower. But he already has his sermon.
"God didn't promise us a bed of roses," he said. "But he promised us he would be with us."

One landmark survived the blaze: the nearly century-old house, now a museum, of Robert E. Howard, author of the Conan the Barbarian books.

Scott Free, a welder who works in Rising Star, had watched the fire build from his property near the cemetery.

"Damn, this is getting serious," he said to himself.

He sprayed water over his mobile home and the house he owns next door and believed that they'd be fine based on the direction of the fire.

"I left to go help those people over there," he said, pointing to a neighbor. "Then I went to a friend's to help him with his horses. By the time I got done helping Jed and come back here, I was 15 minutes too late."

Both houses were in flames, as was his '62 Chevy pickup.

"Just keep going," Free told his friend, who was driving.

A few miles from where Free's house once stood, out on Texas 36, near where the Cross Plains fire began, is a road sign.

It reads: PLEASE HELP PREVENT GRASS FIRES.