How is the Weather condition causing the Fuel Texas Fires?
On Saturday, the Midland County Sheriff’s Office officers drove through Carbon, Texas, to catch cattle and horses lost in the fire. Spurred by inclement weather, fires on Sunday forced the evacuation of more areas in central Texas, firefighters said. Residents in Lipan, about 55 miles west of Fort Worth, were ordered to evacuate as firefighters and two fire-retardant tankers were dispatched to put a new 3,000-acre fire on the border between Airath and Hood counties.
According to Lieutenant Johnny Rose of the Hood County Sheriff’s Office, two firefighters were injured while putting out the fire, dubbed the “Big L”. He did not know about the extent of the injuries. The Big L fire was one of many threatened the region on Sunday.
By Sunday night, other crews arrived at the blaze, which had grown to 11,000 acres and was 10 per cent contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The fire at the Eastland Complex, which has seen multiple fires in Eastland County, Texas, was 30 per cent contained on Sunday, according to fire tracking service InciWeb. Many of the fires started Thursday and have burned more than 54,000 acres. Dozens of homes were destroyed, and a sheriff’s deputy died while helping people escape.
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Mary Leathers of the Texas A&M Forest Service, the state’s leading wildfire agency, said gusty winds and high temperatures help create optimal conditions for the fires, adding that officials remained “hyper-vigilant” about timing.
Another new fire, called the Blowing Basin fire, started on Sunday near the small community of Rising Star in Eastland County. It covered more than 250 acres and was 50 per cent contained by Sunday evening, officials said. Officials evacuated homes to an RV park threatened by a separate fire that engulfed 275 acres between Cisco and Eastland, north of Interstate 20. Dubbed the Cedar Mountain Fire, this fire was later protected by firefighters. … Leathers said on Sunday. “It was a very active day,” he added.
Both the Blowing Basin Fire and the Cedar Mountain Fire are part of the Eastland Complex Fire. The biggest threat in this group of fires was the Kidd Fire, which destroyed more than 42,000 acres and was 40% contained on Sunday. This fire destroyed more than 140 structures, including homes and businesses.
Although conditions on Saturday brought a brief respite, on Sunday, winds and temperatures picked up, and humidity levels eased, Texas A&M Forest Service spokesman Angel Lopez Portillo said. Mr Portillo added that he was unsure how long it would take to bring the fire at the Eastland compound under control.
“We’re not in danger,” said Eastland Fire Chief Joe Williamson. Chief Williamson, the local fire leader in Kidd, said Sunday in an interview from the fire zone that the rising winds were blowing embers from active fires into unburned areas. “Our conditions are deteriorating quite quickly,” he said. Chief Williamson, a firefighter for 32 years, was the Eastland County Fire Chief for just over a year.
He has spent most of his career fighting city fires alongside the metropolitan fire department and has said that fires are a very different problem. “The building is quite easy to maintain: four walls,” he explained. Natural barriers and rolling plains in parts of Texas are the only way to contain wildfires, he said, “we don’t have a lot of them here.” Meteorologists fear that the week will bring more problems.
The National Weather Service issued a “red flag” warning for “severe or severe weather” in northern and central Texas on Sunday. Weather services issue red-flag warnings when high temperatures, extremely low humidity and high winds combine to increase the risk of fires.