Current Texas Wildfire Situation

Wildfire update – Sept. 9, 2011

Current situation:

• Yesterday Texas Forest Service responded to 19 new fires for 673 acres, including new large fires in Camp and Hill counties. 

• In the past seven days Texas Forest Service has responded to 186 fires for 156,517 acres. 

• 250 of the 254 Texas counties are reporting burn bans. 

• Daily detailed fire information can be found at inciweb.org.

New large fires from yesterday (more than 100 acres in timber, 300 acres in lighter fuels; or where homes were lost):

HICKORY HILL CEMETERY, Camp County. 181 acres, contained. Burning in cutover and pine. This fire started Tuesday, however TFS resources were not utilized until yesterday.
DAM, Hill County. 250 acres, 80 percent contained. It appears that up to six homes were lost on this fire yesterday.


Uncontained fires from previous days (more than 100 acres in timber, 300 acres in lighter fuels):

BASTROP COUNTY COMPLEX, Bastrop County. 34,068 acres, 30 percent contained. Crews and equipment continue to mop up and patrol. Good progress was made on the fire yesterday. An assessment team has confirmed 1,386 homes have been destroyed. Two civilians were found dead Tuesday as search crews went through the charred subdivisions. A Southern Area Type I Incident Management Team is assisting in managing the fire.

BEAR CREEK (#536), Cass County. 25,000 acres, unknown containment. Acreage may be higher than what is estimated at this time. MODIS satellite image indicates approximately 40,000 acres have burned. The fire is burning very actively in heavy timber and is threatening numerous houses. Scoopers, heavy airtankers, and Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System engines are assisting. Eight homes have been destroyed. A Type 1 Incident Management Team is assisting with management of the fire.

PEDERNALES BEND (Spicewood), Travis County. 6,500 acres, 80 percent contained. The fire is burning 4 miles southeast of Spicewood. Sixty-seven homes were destroyed.

RILEY ROAD, Grimes/Montgomery/Waller counties. 15,000-plus acres, 60 percent contained. Active fire behavior was observed yesterday as the fire moved to the southwest in Waller County. Approximately seventy-five homes have been destroyed on this fire burning just west of Magnolia.

UNION CHAPEL, Bastrop County. 719 acres, 90 percent contained. Twenty-five homes were destroyed on this fire just west of Bastrop. Aircraft responded immediately after the fire was reported, but was ineffective in the windy conditions.

WHITE OAK ROAD, Gregg County. 300 acres, 80 percent contained. The fire is burning in pine and hardwood. No new information was received.

PETERS CHAPEL, Harrison County. 650 acres, 80 percent contained. The fire is burning actively in pine plantation. Numerous homes have been evacuated. Two homes were destroyed. No new information was received.

CLARKSVILLE, Red River County. 350 acres, 90 percent contained. Two homes were lost on this timber and grass fire burning near Clarksville.

#521, Cherokee/Rusk County. 256 acres, 90 percent contained.

#538 (Lansing Switch Road), Harrison County. 200 acres, 50 percent contained. The fire is burning in pine and hardwoods. No new information was received.

DELHI, Caldwell County. 6,000 acres, 85 percent contained. Twenty homes were saved and six were lost on this fire east of Lockhart.

DIANA (#545), Upshur County. 2,500 acres, 70 percent contained. The fire is burning in grass and timber. Twenty homes are threatened. No new information was received.
LUTHERHILL, Fayette County. 2,700 acres, 95 percent contained. The community of Ruttersville was evacuated. Fourteen homes were destroyed.

BONBIEW RANCH, Van Zandt County. 350 acres, 80 percent contained. Twenty homes were saved southeast of Canton. No new information was received.

MOORE, Smith County. 1,556 acres, 90 percent contained. Ten homes were evacuated and five were lost on this fire burning on the Smith/Gregg County line. The fire continued to be active Wednesday night. Two civilian fatalities were reported last Sunday.

BOOT WALKER (#553), Marion County. 1,000 acres, unknown containment. A wind shift to the south could threaten 30 homes.

TOAD ROAD (#552), Upshur County. 350 acres, unknown containment. The fire is burning in timber. Three homes were lost and dozens remain threatened. No new information was received.

HALSBRO COMPLEX, Red River County. 958 acres, 95 percent contained. The fire is burning in grass. Fifteen homes are threatened, but none reported lost.

#507, Anderson County. 1,400 acres, unknown containment.

#504, Anderson County. 800 acres, unknown containment.

#502, Nacogdoches County. 4,000 acres, unknown containment. MODIS satellite shows the fire may be approximately 9,000 acres. The fire was very active yesterday. More than a dozen homes have been evacuated, but none lost.

ARBOR, Houston County. 3,000 acres, 90 percent contained. The fire is burning in timber. Up to 15 homes are reported lost.

OLD MAGNOLIA, Gregg County. 1,000 acres, 80 percent contained. Several structures and a gas plant are threatened. No new information was received.

101 RANCH, Palo Pinto County. 6,555 acres, 85 percent contained. The fire is burning on the south side of Possum Kingdom Lake near the town of Brad. Thirty-nine homes and nine RVs have been reported destroyed. Crews continue to mop up and aircraft are monitoring.

Weather Outlook:
A surface ridge of dry high pressure will maintain a dry air mass and northerly component to the flow to much of the Lone Star state into early next week. A weak surface trough of low pressure in place over the panhandle during may lead to some localized gusty winds at times over the far northern portions of the panhandle where an isolated shower or thunderstorm could occur. The pressure gradient will be strongest near the Interstate 35 corridor today, where winds should again be around 10 mph sustained for a few hours in the late afternoon to early evening hours. Relative humidity this afternoon will be similar to yesterday afternoon, with minimum relative humidity below 20 percent across most of the state. High temperatures will range in the 80s and 90s in general, but will approach 100 over Deep South Texas. Poor overnight recoveries will continue for areas away from the coast, especially locations west of Interstate 35. Dry conditions will continue as high pressure over the Southern Plains continues to push dry air over the East Branch. Winds will be lighter with more variable through the morning hours becoming north and northeast during the afternoon 5 to 8 mph with gusts up to 15 mph. Mostly sunny skies with afternoon highs in the upper 80s to mid-90s. The relative humidity will fall back into the 12-20 percent range and 25-35 percent south where a late afternoon sea breeze will creep inland. Poor to moderate overnight recoveries 50-60 percent in the northwest to 65-85 percent in the east and south.

Current Texas Wildfire Situation

Wildfire update – Sept. 8, 2011

Current situation:

• Yesterday Texas Forest Service responded to 20 new fires for 1,422 acres, including new large fires in Red River, Smith, and Cherokee/Rusk counties. 

• In the past seven days Texas Forest Service has responded to 176 fires for 126,844 acres.

• A more comprehensive assessment has been completed on the Bastrop County Complex by FEMA and the State Operations Center. The total number of homes destroyed on that fire is now confirmed at 1,386. Approximately 240 additional homes have been reported lost on other fires since Sunday, for a total of approximately 1,626.

• 250 of the 254 Texas counties are reporting burn bans.

• Daily detailed fire information can be found at inciweb.org.

New large fires from yesterday (more than 100 acres in timber, 300 acres in lighter fuels; or where homes were lost):

CLARKSVILLE, Red River County. 350 acres, 90 percent contained. Two homes were lost on this timber and grass fire burning near Clarksville.

#526, Smith County. 450 acres, unknown containment.

#521, Cherokee/Rusk County. 256 acres, 90 percent contained.

Uncontained fires from previous days (more than 100 acres in timber, 300 acres in lighter fuels):


BASTROP COUNTY COMPLEX, Bastrop County. 34,068 acres, 30 percent contained. Heavy airtankers, scoopers, helicopters, and single-engine airtankers assisted on this fire that started in the Lost Pines area just northeast of Bastrop. Most of the forward progress of the fire has stopped, but significant intense burning continues in the interior. An assessment team has confirmed 1,386 homes have been destroyed. Two civilians were found dead Tuesday as search crews went through the charred subdivisions.A Southern Area Type I Incident Management Team is assisting in managing the fire.


BEAR CREEK (#536), Cass County. 25,000 acres, unknown containment. The fire is burning very actively in heavy timber and is threatening numerous houses. Numerous aviation resources and Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System engines are assisting. Eight homes have been destroyed. A Type 1 Incident Management Team arrives today to assist with management of the fire.

PEDERNALES BEND (Spicewood), Travis County. 6,500 acres, 80 percent contained. The fire is burning 4 miles southeast of Spicewood. Sixty-seven homes were destroyed.

RILEY ROAD, Grimes/Montgomery/Waller counties. 11,000 acres, 60 percent contained. Active fire behavior was observed yesterday as the fire moved to the south. Seventy-five homes have been destroyed on this fire burning just west of Magnolia.

TAMINA ROAD, Montgomery County. 150 acres, unknown containment. Hundreds of homes were evacuated Monday evening, but none was reported lost. No additional information has been received.

UNION CHAPEL, Bastrop County. 912 acres, 90 percent contained. Twenty-five homes were destroyed on this fire just west of Bastrop. Aircraft responded immediately after the fire was reported, but were ineffective in the windy conditions.

WHITE OAK ROAD, Gregg County. 300 acres, 80 percent contained. The fire is burning in pine and hardwood.

PETERS CHAPEL, Harrison County. 650 acres, 80 percent contained. The fire is burning actively in pine plantation. Numerous homes have been evacuated. Two homes were destroyed.

STEINER RANCH, Travis County. 125 acres, 50 percent contained. The fire started just north of the Steiner Ranch subdivision. More than 1,000 homes were evacuated. Thirty-five homes were destroyed.

#538 (Lansing Switch Road), Harrison County. 200 acres, 50 percent contained. The fire is burning in pine and hardwoods.

#491, Limestone County. 3,000 acres, 95 percent contained. Six homes were saved and one was lost on this fire 20 miles east of Waco.

DELHI, Caldwell County. 6,000 acres, 850 percent contained. wenty homes were saved and six were lost on this fire east of Lockhart.

BAILEY, Colorado County. 2,300 acres, 90 percent contained. This fast-moving fire threatened 40 homes near Columbus. Ten homes were destroyed.

DIANA (#545), Upshur County. 2,500 acres, 70 percent contained. The fire is burning in grass and timber. Twenty homes are threatened.

LUTHERHILL, Fayette County. 2,700 acres, 95 percent contained. The community of Ruttersville was evacuated. Fourteen homes were destroyed.

BONBIEW RANCH, Van Zandt County. 350 acres, 80 percent contained. Twenty homes were saved southeast of Canton.

MOORE, Smith County. 1,500 acres, 90 percent contained. Ten homes were evacuated and five were lost on this fire burning on the Smith/Gregg County line. Two civilian fatalities were reported.

BOOT WALKER (#553), Marion County. 1,000 acres, unknown containment. Thirty homes are threatened.

TOAD ROAD (#552), Upshur County. 350 acres, unknown containment. The fire is burning in timber. Three homes were lost and dozens remain threatened.

HOPEWELL (#854), Walker County. 1,035 acres, 90 percent contained. Thirty homes have been evacuated, five homes were destroyed.

HALSBRO COMPLEX, Red River County. 958 acres, unknown containment. The fire is burning in grass. Fifteen homes are threatened, but none reported lost.

#507, Anderson County. 1,400 acres, unknown containment.

#504, Anderson County. 800 acres, unknown containment.

#502, Nacogdoches County. 4,000 acres, unknown containment. More than a dozen homes have been evacuated, but none lost.

ARBOR, Houston County. 3,000 acres, 90 percent contained. The fire is burning in timber. Up to 15 homes are reported lost.

PETTYTOWN, Caldwell County. 200 acres, 95 percent contained. Twenty homes were saved east of Lockhart.

OLD MAGNOLIA, Gregg County. 1,000 acres, 80 percent contained. Several structures and a gas plant are threatened. Two fuel tanks exploded.

#839, Leon County (Concord Robbins). 4,689 acres, 90 percent contained. An estimated 20 homes are reported lost and more than 300 were evacuated.

101 RANCH, Palo Pinto County. 6,555 acres, 85 percent contained. The fire is burning on the south side of Possum Kingdom Lake near the town of Brad. Thirty-nine homes and nine RVs have been reported destroyed.

Weather Outlook:
A surface ridge of dry high pressure will maintain a dry air mass and northerly component to the flow to most of the Lone Star state. A surface trough of low pressure in place over the panhandle during the afternoon will lead to some gusty winds at times over the far northern portions of the panhandle where an isolated shower or thunderstorm could occur. The pressure gradient will be strongest near the Interstate 35 corridor today, where winds should generally be strongest sustained, around 10 mph for a few hours in the late afternoon to early evening hours. Relative humidity this afternoon will be slightly higher than yesterday in most places, but the majority of the state should experience minimum relative humidity below 25 percent. Many areas will fall to the 10 to 20 percent range. High temperatures will range in the 80s and 90s in general, but will approach 100 over Deep South Texas. Poor overnight recoveries are expected again for areas away from the coast, especially locations west of Interstate 35. Dry conditions will continue as high pressure over Texas and Oklahoma moves very slowly east. Northeast flow 6-10 mph, with gusts to 12-15 mph will be common. Partly sunny skies with high clouds moving into the northern areas, and sunny skies across the south will allow afternoon high temperatures to climb to 85-92. Relative humidity values fall to 14 to 20 percent in the northwest and 18 to 30 percent across the southeast. Poor to moderate overnight recoveries of 50 percent in the northwest to 60-65 percent in the east and south are expected.

Rick Perry's Budget Leaves Texans In Bind Amidst Historic Wildfires

First Posted: 9/7/11

WASHINGTON -- As wildfires engulfed her Bastrop County, Texas, neighborhood on Sunday, Betty Dunkerley was forced to evacuate her home for safer ground. There were few options for shelter, she said. Only a middle school and a Catholic church had been opened up to evacuees, and the middle school were already crowded.

While seeking shelter, Dunkerley saw others who had been displaced -- families with nowhere to go and no support system in place to assist them. Some slept in parking lots, with kids sleeping in sleeping bags in truck beds alongside the family dog.

"A lot of people were trying to camp out," Dunkerley, a former Austin City Council member, told The Huffington Post.

The wildfires threatening Dunkerley and her neighbors are being met by an inadequately funded response team. Back in May, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) signed a budget presented by the state legislature that cut funding for the state agency in charge of combating such blazes.

The Texas Forest Service's funding was sliced from $117.7 million to $83 million. More devastating cuts hit the assistance grants to volunteer fire departments around the state. Those grants were slashed 55 percent from $30 million per year in 2010 and 2011 to $13.5 million per year in 2012 and 2013. Those cuts are effective now.

As of Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported that wildfires had consumed more than 33,000 acres in Bastrop County, clearing out 20 neighborhoods and claiming two lives. Fires had also sprung up in several counties outside of Houston, burning at least 7,000 acres. Aerial photos from the Bastrop blaze showed a huge smoke plume had drifted over Austin.

Dunkerley was lucky. She had a key to her church and was able to set up camp there. Her house was not among the 800 or so turned to ash. It had survived. But, she was told, her neighborhood had not. It looked like a "war zone."

Dunkerley had managed to flee with her three cats, a dress she planned to wear for an upcoming family wedding and little else. She said she doesn't know when she will be allowed back into her home.

"In hindsight, we should have all had a better plan on a personal level and a governmental level," she said. "All over central Texas you can have this repeated," she added. "Everything is a tinderbox."

Texas is currently facing its worst single-year drought on record, with agricultural losses topping $5 billion. Similar drought conditions and water rationing caused deadly fires that raged two years ago. Despite that history, Texas's governor and state lawmakers failed to make any allowances for wildfires this year.

Perry, who is now the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary, returned home from the campaign trail to address the fires on Monday, the day after Dunkerley had been evacuated.


"I think our local state senator has been very visible," Dunkerley said. "Our county judge and our mayor in Bastrop have been very visible." She added that once Perry returned to Texas, "some of our state resources were showing up a little faster."

But the consequences of the cuts to firefighting funding remain evident.

"We were outvoted -- what can I say?" said Texas state Sen. Mario Gallegos (D), who voted against the state budget. "Obviously this money is needed for natural disasters like the ones we have right now."

"We do have a rainy day fund, and I would hope that the governor goes into the rainy day fund," he added. "But we have to also be responsible here locally, and cutting the Forest Service budget significantly was not being responsible."

Gallegos, who worked for 22 years in the Houston fire department, noted that outside major cities like Houston and Dallas, volunteer firefighters are the backbone of the Texas firefighting force.

"Out in the suburbs and in the woods, we have to count on our volunteers," he told HuffPost.

Analiese Kornely, executive director of the Perry watchdog group Back to Basics PAC, said that the governor had the money to fund volunteer fire department programs.

"[Budget writers] did actually have the $60 million needed to fund the program at 2010-2011 levels but did not use it," she said in an email. Instead, the volunteers took the 55 percent cut.

In Texas, volunteer firefighting programs receive state money through tax revenues set aside in a dedicated fund.

"We're all paying this money to a dedicated fund," said Jim Dunnam, a former state representative and current fellow at the Texas First Foundation. "And they're not spending the money because they need that money to offset their spending elsewhere." State officials, he said, "are telling people, 'You need to pay taxes for fire prevention,' and then [they] don't spend it. It's crazy."

Instead, the funds are left in a general account. "It is one of the gimmicks they used to balance the budget in Texas," Dunnam said. "[Perry's] good at flying back to Texas for a photo op," he added, "but over his tenure as governor, we've just had chronic neglect of basic things to allow Texas to move forward."

Robert Ryland, a democratic precinct chair in Elgin, a town located 18 miles north of Bastrop, called the decision to cut volunteer firefighter funds "horrible." He noted the area had endured wild fires in recent years, and drought conditions were already a big problem when the cuts came down.

"You're literally playing with fire," Ryland told HuffPost. "When you are talking about essential public services, those things to tend to be a third rail even in Texas. This is the first time in my memory that I've ever seen funding for that kind of thing tossed around or used as an accounting trick to keep their numbers where they wanted them, where Perry wanted them to be."

Bastrop has a small fire department, Ryland said, and the surrounding towns had volunteer forces. "These are truly volunteers, with other jobs and families," he explained. "Just having that available in small communities is a life line for a lot of folks. This is not something you should mess with."

It's not just the funding, but Perry himself who has been MIA during the wildfires, Ryland said. "He basically came down here and told us FEMA would be here on Wednesday," he said, "and then he took off."

Eva DeLuna, a budget analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, told HuffPost the Texas state legislature almost always deals with natural disasters after the fact.

"We tend not to do prevention because we're the lowest-spending state in the country," DeLuna said. "We tend to deal with things once it’s an emergency." She cited creating firebreaks as one preventative measure fire departments could take if they had the resources.

"We know what we should do, but we just don't have the money to deal with it," she said, adding, "well we do -- we just don’t want to collect it in taxes.”

In an email to HuffPost, Texas state Sen. Kirk Watson (D) scolded his fellow lawmakers for failing to prepare for the wildfires.

"It would be refreshing to see those in control -- of the Capitol and of the budgeting process -- express as much concern about preventing these tragedies before they take place as they do after land, property and possessions of Texans are lost," he wrote.

"During the session, budget decisions are presented as little more than math problems," Watson continued. "They're presented as raw numbers, and the discussion ends as soon as those numbers balance -- or even just appear to balance, by any means necessary. Events such as these fires show these kinds of debates aren't just about numbers. They're about specific impacts on very real people and their lives."

Perry has berated the Obama administration for not approving quickly enough a request he put in to FEMA for federal funds to assist firefighting efforts in Texas.

"You see hundreds of thousands of acres of Texas burning and you know that there will soon be emergency declarations, and we did that now a couple of weeks ago, but still no response from this administration," he told local news radio station WOAI in an April interview. "There is a point in time where you say, hey, what's going on here," Perry added. "You have to ask why are you taking care of Alabama and other states? I know our letter didn't get lost in the mail."

But after complaining to the feds and conducting a statewide prayer for rain earlier this year, Perry appears to have shifted his focus to the 2012 election.

Recent polls showed Perry surging ahead of Mitt Romney and the rest of the GOP 2012 pack, with 29 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents listing him as their first choice for the Republican nomination. His closest competitor, Romney, landed just 17 percent of respondents.

People in Texas, however, are not as convinced by Perry's performance. A survey conducted by Public Policy Polling found Perry trailing Obama 45 percent to 47 percent in Texas, which hasn't voted for a Democratic president since 1976. The June poll showed Perry's approval rating at just 43 percent. Another University of TexasTexas Tribune poll shows him doing considerably worse.

A call to Perry’s office Wednesday was not returned.