Texas Gov. Declares Grass Fires a Disaster

[Vince278]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
What a bunch of jerks. This does it. Jokes.
My cousin's family had to evacuate their house.
Trivializing Katrina.
I'm gone. Y'all take care. I don't need this ****.

I apologize if it appears I had any part in that.

[Bill3000]

Sucks to be Texas.

[Sava]

see its all fun and games until there's a grass fire in your state

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hell there's a grass fire at Sava's house every day of the week!

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Dis
oh come on! Wake me when people are killed . . .

Wake up, Dis. 5 people are now dead.

[Harry Tuttle]

You guys ever see a grass fire? It moves pretty damn fast with enough wind, and it kills just as well as any forest fire. Joking about this is retarded.

[The Mad Monk]

Grass fires are no laughing matter, and have been a danger from time immemorial.

[Zkribbler]

It's probably inaccurate to even call this a grass fire. After this draught, it's probably more like a dry kindling fire. And throw in the high winds and no humidity. Holy cripes. :

[The Mad Monk]

Marty Robbins Prairie Fire

While drivin' a herd of cattle out in old Nebraska way
Headin' east at Broken Bow one hot September day
Tryin' to get to Omaha we hoped to find a buyer
We never counted in the odds of a western prairie fire

A hot south wind was blowin' and the air was gettin' dry
Somethin' far away was spellin' trouble in the sky
Comin' closer was a sound that topped the devil's choir
We knew right then we had to race a raging prairie fire

When all at once a flame is seen a lickin' at the sky
And every heart is quickened and there's fear in every eye
We'd just one chance to get away for there's no place to hide
Gotta reach the river Platte one inch deep and one mile wide

The herd is gettin' tired but we've got no time to rest
I try to clear the red dust that is gatherin' in my chest
From ridin' tail on a thousand head with the weather gettin' dry
The black cloud in the west is warning ride Ride RIDE!

The roarin' heat is closer ashes fallin' by our side
And every beast and bird is fleein' with its warnin' cry
We've got to reach the river but it's still ten miles or more
And close behind us we can hear that wild inferno roar!

But fate had other plans for we lost that fatal race
We lost for neither man nor beast could long keep up the pace
The mighty Platte subdued its rage but none were there to rest
We did our best to get away but only I am left

Now on the blackened prairie far as the eye can see
The grim remains are there to show that God rules you and me
Just one he left to tell the tale just one was his desire
We lost our herd and thirty men to a raging prairie fire

[SlowwHand]

Raging Wildfire Burns Oklahoma City Homes

By ASHLEY GIBSON, Associated Press Writer
50 minutes ago

OKLAHOMA CITY - Wildfires raged across Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico on Sunday, burning several homes in Oklahoma City and sparking patchworks of flames across the region as gusting winds blew flaming embers into the dry grass.

In Texas, at least 20 fires sprang up Sunday, continuing several days of damaging grass fires that officials warned were likely to continue as long as the dry, warm and windy conditions held on.

An 8,000-acre blaze threatened 200 homes near Carbon, about 125 miles west of Dallas, and at least three homes had been destroyed by evening.

Just west of the Texas border in Hobbs, N.M., officials evacuated a nursing home, casino, community college and several neighborhoods as firefighters battled spreading grass fires on the western edge of the town of 29,000.

In Oklahoma City, two neighborhoods were evacuated as flames snaked across the northeastern part of the city and several homes were in flames. One man suffered minor smoke inhalation after refusing to evacuate his home, Stanaland said. Firefighters later rescued the man in a field near his home.

"We will overcome this challenge," Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry said in a televised news conference Sunday night as the fires continued to burn.

Drought-like conditions have pushed the fire danger to critical levels across Oklahoma and Texas.

Last week, wildfires in the two states ravaged more than 50,000 acres, destroying nearly 100 homes and businesses and killing four people. Oklahoma put out an emergency call for more fire crews from other states, and the governor asked for a federal disaster declaration.

At least a dozen wildfires were burning in Oklahoma on Sunday, pushed by 50 mph wind gusts. A large blaze near Guthrie threatened several homes, said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

"Today has been extremely intense," Fire Maj. Brian Stanaland said in Oklahoma City. "I think it's maybe starting to take its toll on our department."

Power lines arced and sparked one grass fire in the city. While firefighters battled that blaze, high winds tossed material from a nearby construction site into power lines, causing the debris to burn before it landed on a nearby nursing home, Stanaland said.

"You basically had flying, flaming debris," Stanaland said. "Luckily, we were already on the scene putting out the fires when it happened so we were able to put it out."

A fire near Wainwright in Muskogee County charred several thousand acres and was at least a mile wide, but no injuries or structure fires were reported, said Bill Beebe, an information officer at a statewide command center established in Shawnee.

In Carbon, Texas, at least three homes and several barns were destroyed Sunday afternoon and area residents were evacuated, said Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver.

Helicopters with the Texas Air National Guard assisted firefighters as billowing clouds of smoke hung across the horizon for miles.

Carbon is just northeast of Cross Plains, where more than 90 homes and a church were destroyed in a raging grass fire last week.

"We just took up money for the folks in Cross Plains at church this morning, never thinking it would be us in just three hours," said Mallory Fagan, who waited in nearby Eastland with her daughter Shana Fuchs and 15 dogs they rounded up from the family's dog rescue.

Fires raged along the Texas state line in New Mexico, including one reported at 40,000 to 50,000 acres along 20-mile line, said Dan Ware, a spokesman for the state Forestry Division.

Four structures burned in Hobbs, where residents — including 27 living at a nursing home — evacuated the western side of the city, Ware said.

AP - Sun Jan 1, 7:56 PM ET
An oil well pump is silhouetted against a grass fire in Guthhrie, Okla., Sunday, Jan. 1, 2006. Dry and windy conditions made for perfect conditions for fires that have plagued Texas and Oklahoma in the past week.(AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

[Dis]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Wake up, Dis. 5 people are now dead.

I admit I haven't seen the news. I've been very busy lately. But surely they knew about the fire. Why didn't they evacuate?

I don't know if this is the case. But I'm sick of people not heeding evacuation orders, and then I'm supposed to feel sad that they die?

Of course all fires are dangerous. That's why you heed evacuation orders and stay away from them.

[SlowwHand]

Fire isn't like a train. You can't just simply step off the track.

[SlowwHand]

Wildfires Believed to Have Leveled 2 Towns

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer
48 minutes ago

CARBON, Texas - Weary fire crews kept up their fight Monday to contain major grass fires across Texas that had burned dozens of homes and apparently destroyed a couple of tiny towns.

Other fires across the drought-stricken region had charred thousands of acres in Oklahoma and New Mexico, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate.

Officials warned that the dry, windy weather and extreme fire danger would continue.

"We don't know where we will be today," Oklahoma City Fire Department Maj. Brian Stanaland said Monday morning. "At this point, we consider the whole city a target for grass fires."

Computer models Monday showed no rain in the foreseeable future, said Jesse Moore, a
National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth. He said the region's last appreciable rain was about a quarter-inch on Dec. 20.

The biggest fire in Texas on Monday was a 25-mile-long blaze that had blackened 22,400 acres in Eastland County, about 125 miles west of Dallas. State officials were dispatching more helicopters and airplanes to battle that blaze near the small towns of Carbon, Gorman and Desdemona, said Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver.

Firefighters were close to encircling the fire Monday, but were concerned that an expected shift in wind would complicate efforts, Weaver said.

Fire survey crews flying over other sections of northern and western Texas on Sunday reported the tiny communities of Ringgold and Kokomo, which together were home to about 125 people, had essentially been wiped out by flames, Weaver said.

Crews planned to conduct a house-to-house search Monday for casualties in the two towns, as well as in Cross Plains, about 25 miles west of Carbon, where more than 90 homes and a church were destroyed by flames last week. In all, four deaths were reported last week in Texas and Oklahoma.

About 20 homes were burned out in the 13-mile stretch from Ringgold to Nocona, Montague County Judge James Kittrell said Monday. Six homes were destroyed near Mineral Wells, Weaver said.

Dozens of fires blackened the Oklahoma landscape as wind gusted to 50 mph, including 25 blazes within Oklahoma City that forced the evacuations of two neighborhoods. Four homes were destroyed, Stanaland said Monday.

Altogether, dozens of wildfires swept across more than 5,000 acres of Oklahoma and destroyed at least a dozen homes on Sunday, said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management.

One fire, in Cimarron County in the Oklahoma Panhandle, extended along 49 miles Sunday night and had charred 35,000 acres, said Michelle Finch, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department's forestry division.

Since Nov. 1, Oklahoma wildfires have covered more than 285,000 acres and destroyed 200 buildings, Finch said Monday.

"This has been an unprecedented year for fires," Finch said. Fire season in Oklahoma usually begins around Feb. 15 and lasts until April 15, but this past year the fires began in June and have gotten progressively worse, Finch said.

Just across the Texas state line in New Mexico, crews were mopping up Monday after four fires in the Hobbs area that had blackened more than 65,000 acres of grassland and burned more than a dozen houses and barns.

Some 170 elderly residents were moved out of two nursing homes in Hobbs on Sunday, and a casino and community college in the town of 29,000 were evacuated.

Most of the evacuated nursing home residents had been sent back to their quarters Monday, but 60 residents of one of nursing home and 50 to 75 other residents of the Hobbs area were still evacuees, said Ernie Wheeler, Hobbs emergency operations center director.

"It's real calm; nice and cool," Dan Ware, New Mexico state Forestry Division spokesman, said Monday morning. "Basically, all the fires laid down and just kind of went to bed."