Texas Has 254 Counties, And There Are Fires In 252 Of Them Today - Driest Spring Since 1917
Dallas (CNN) -- Dozens of large fires burned out of control Monday in Texas in what officials described as unprecedented conditions that show no signs of abating soon.
"We're experiencing conditions never seen in Texas before," said Marq Webb, a public information officer with the Texas Forest Service, which was devoting massive resources to the effort. "Yesterday, we had 1,400 people and that number will go up today," Webb said Monday in a telephone interview from the service's incident command center in Merkel just west of Abilene.
In all, the Forest Service has been asked to help battle fires covering some 700,000 acres, he said. Thirty-one fires were being fought in East Texas; another 11 fires in West Texas, officials said.
EDIT
"We're experiencing conditions we've never seen in Texas before," he said. "We have a huge area of Texas with abundant fuels and they are tinder dry -- and I'm talking about probably half of the state."
Monday's forecast was worse than Sunday's, "and tomorrow's supposed to be worse than today," he said. Though temperatures are expected to dip Wednesday, they were predicted to ramp back up on Thursday and Friday.
We just had a big grass fire here called the "Tire Fire." A car with a blown tire ignited the grass near Melrose and it took firefighters from all over eastern New Mexico to stop the fire at the edge of Clovis. The fire covered 25 miles in one hour. We haven't had a good rain in at least 8 months. The fire chief said if we don't get some moisture there will be many more fires.
Hmmm, record drought and temps in Texas, record amount of tornados in NC and other southern states over the weekend ,record floods last year in OK ,Tenn. etc.,record heat wave in NY last summer.
Looks like Al Gore was right.....and ahead of schedule.
I was just out close to PK talking to a sheriff and he was given an official number of 1.5 million this afternoon. Hauled about 12 loads out for friends and family on Friday, but most of the roads we use are closed now. We went via boat to check on a friends place and could hardly breath going across the lake from the smoke. Another friend showed me pics of his ranch burning. It's bad, I bet I cut 20 fences out there Fri and Sat.
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About 130 mileage from Dallas, but less than 100 now from Ft Worth. I don't anticipate a problem here, its been raining here. There is a line west of Ft Worth and when you cross it everything turns brown.
I'm surprised this isn't going on in NM right now, we are probably twice as dry as TX easy, only a matter of time, I got a brother whose a volunteer fire out of granbury, he's up in "possum Kingdom" fighting that one.
Its not that all of those counties HAVE fires it is that all of those counties are in danger of being affected by fires (Burn bans and fire weather warnings). big difference!!! I can name you many counties right off the top that havent had any large wildfires yet this year. Ellis, Dallas, Tarrant, Johnson, Kaufman, Rockwall, Hill, and many others I cant think of off the top of my head. So this whole 252 of 254 counties is another example of the media trying to sensationalize things for the sake of fear mongering.
Dont get me wrong the situation is dire and could get worse but that article is greatly exagerating the current situation in some areas in Texas.
There is always a burn ban in Texas except in Dec, Jan & Feb when we have our "winter". There was an aprarment fire in San Antonio yesterday, I guess they don't get those in other states. The fires in north west Texas are terrible but it is not burning from boarder to boarder that is just silly. If Texas was burning from boarder to boarder it would be alot more than 147 homes.
Here let me put on my newscaster glasses - Why no it doesn't, it actually looks more the whole state is up in flames, and now let's see what Katie has in national news:thumb:
Couldn't resist - Our prayers are with all of you in the affected areas.
________________
"FIRE IN THE HOLE"
My Department has fought a few small fires here in Central Texas but so far we have been spared any large fires. My prayers go to those involved and those fighting the fires in the windiest March and April in History.
Ayup!As a newspaper stringer I covered the second biggest wildfire in California (up until then, there have been bigger since) in my misspent youth. Here's my recollection of that fire with pictures.
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