Tagged: Wildfires

For 17 years, Linda and Roger Ward lived in their two-story dream house in a subdivision in Bastrop County, southeast of Austin, Texas. They loved to sit on their back deck and listen to the wind in the pines.

On the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 4, everything changed.

After surviving a 34,000 acre wildfire that destroyed more than 1,600 houses, the Bastrop High School football team will hit the gridiron tonight and square off against the San Marcos Rattlers.

Making matters even more emotional, eleven players and two of the team’s coaches lost their homes in the fire.

“It has been a very difficult week off for this community and our team,” Bastrop head coach Gerald Perry said in a post on the team’s website. “Through the adversity we have faced, we will rise up and be stronger.”

The remaining evacuees from the Bastrop Complex wildfire are returning home today, some of them still unsure if their houses were among the more than 1,600 that are now estimated to have been destroyed.

The last evacuation orders were lifted at 10 a.m. this morning in the neighborhoods of Eastern Tahitian Village, Pine Forest, McAllister Road, and the remainder of ColoVista.

Twelve days after the wildfire broke out in Bastrop County, firefighters have contained 75 percent of the fire zone’s 50 mile perimeter. While crews battled numerous flare ups overnight, no additional homes were burned.

 “They’re working day and night, and we think that every day that goes by, we’ll be making it safer and safer and safer for our citizens,” Bastrop County Emergency Operations Coordinator Mike Fisher said during today’s morning briefing. “I feel very comfortable that we’re not going to have a major rekindle of the magnitude that we’ve seen on the Labor Day weekend.”

Christmas Mountains to Texas State University System

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is expected to announce that the General Land Office will turn over control of the Christmas Mountains to the Texas State University System. Published reports indicate the wilderness area will be used as an outdoor lab and wilderness classroom. There had been discussion of selling the 9,200-plus acre land tract next to Big Bend National Park to a private owner, but it appears now that Sul Ross State University will take over administration of the West Texas land.

With wildfires scorching thousands of acres of Central Texas, people have been particularly sensitive to the danger of a wildfire. Especially the danger posed by drivers tossing lit cigarette butts out the windows of their cars.

“I'm okay with smokers, but watching someone flick a cigarette out of the car window makes me want to force them to eat it,” Michael Burnett Tweeted this week.

“I might start tweeting license plate numbers of people who throw cigarette butts out. Been seeing it more than ever,” wrote Michael Vilaythong.

Firefighters in Bastrop successfully battled about 18 flare-ups yesterday as winds gusted to 20 miles per hour and the relative humidity dropped below 15 percent. The weather outlook is slightly worse for today, but fire officials are optimistic they can contain the stubborn wildfire that has persisted for 11 days.

Most of yesterday’s flare-ups were in areas already blackened by the 34,000-acre wildfire. Fire crews and helicopters moved quickly to extinguish them. About 600 firefighters are still working on the Bastrop Complex blaze.

Meteorologists predict slightly stronger winds and low humidity today, but nothing like the 40 mile per hour gusts that initially fanned the flames on Labor Day weekend when the fire began.