SECOND firefighter sacrifices his life battling wildfires as Texans pray for rain... but with a million acres scorched already there’s no reprieve in sight








Cost of containing fires throughout the state has spiralled to more than $8million

22 separate blazes burning throughout Texas

Temporary improvement in weather conditions expected to last only a few days



One fire in Stephen County increased in acreage by nearly 90,000 in just 24 hours



Hundreds have been evacuated and fears grow of flames spreading to big cities

Some fires burning dangerously close to Oklahoma border, where conditions are also ripe for spread

Rain forecast for next few days giving weary firefighters some hope

Texans were today desperately praying for rain, as a second firefighter died from injuries sustained battling the terrible wildfires ravaging the state.

Cooler temperatures and calmer winds helped his weary colleagues at last get a handle on the latest wildfire, now spanning three northern Texas counties, but officials warned the let-up was only temporary.

The fires have now been raging for more than a week in Texas, so far burning through 1.4 million acres of land and racking up more than $8million in containment costs.

Utterly destroyed: A large home is reduced to ashes on Possum Kingdom Lake,Texas, after wildfires ravage the state

Dan Byrd, a National Weather Service meteorologist working with the Texas Forest Service, said: 'We really need some rainfall. We expect rain in the next few days, but we don't know if it'll get on the fires or not.'

Although the moister air as allowed firefighterss to make 'great progress' in building containment lines, Texas Forest Service spokesman Marq Webb said hot and dry weather is likely to reappear in the next two or three days.

He said: 'We're going to have a two- or three-day reprieve and then things start ramping up again.'

And firefighters continue to battle some 22 separate blazes throughout the state, with some dangerously close to the Oklahoma border. Homes have been gutted, animals killed and hundreds of residents have been forced to leave their homes because of the advancing flames.

One of the wildfires in PK West, Stephens County, increased in size by a staggering 87,238 acres in just 24 hours - a 144 per cent increase.

Hopeless battle: The stone entrance columns are now all that remain of the Cedar Springs Methodist Church near Palo Pinto, Texas

Only silence remains: A burnt-out piano lies at the heart of the church, reduced to ashes by the terrible wildfires

Scorched earth: The fires which ripped through Possum Kingdom Lake reduced these trees to ashes

Another team of federal firefighters joined local officers yesterday to help battle a blaze which has burned through nearly 150,000 acres in the Possum Kingdom Lake area, only 70 miles west of Fort Worth, since it began last week.



On the same day firefighter Elias Jaquez of Cactus, Texas, died 11 days after he was critically injured fighting a fire about 40 miles north of Amarillo. His colleague Gregory Mack Simmons was laid to rest at a service attended by 1,000 people yesterday morning, after he died on Friday in a blaze near Olden, Eastland.

The fires are so severe even prisons have been emptied in some towns. The drought-stricken state, which experienced its driest March on record, is desperately hoping for the rain that has been forecast in the coming days.

Fire crews from 34 states have now joined the effort to bring the fires under control.

Firefighters continue to battle some 22 separate blazes throughout Texas. Homes have been gutted, animals killed and hundreds of residents have been forced to leave their homes

Survivor: A home under construction that just missed the damage from wildfires near Possum Kingdom Lake. There is now growing fear that this wildfire may get as far as Fort Worth - one of Texas' largest cities with nearly 750,000 residents

The Texas Forest Service today announced it owes $36.3million for firefighting costs since the start of the fiscal year, of which $23.8 million is due to the federal government for air support.

The state has been receiving federal help with West Texas wildfires for more than a week. Personnel from more than a half-dozen federal agencies - including the Forest Service, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management - have been battling some massive fires, including a 150,000-acre fire in Coke County north of San Angelo.

April Saginor, from the Texas Forest Service, told CNN Radio: 'We're actually seeing Texas burn from border to border. We've got it in West Texas, East Texas, in North Texas, in South Texas - it's all over the state.'



'We've got one in the Dallas area that's four fires that have actually merged together.'

She added: 'Some are over 100,000 acres, and they've been burning for over a week, so that's our priority right now, to put out the big ones.'

Lit up: The Texas Forest Service undertook a series of 'controlled burns' at the weekend to get rid of fuel on the mountains around McDonald Observatory, seen right

Close call: A running wildfire encroaches on a large home in Strawn, Texas. Dozens of area homes have been destroyed in the wildfires

There is now growing fear that the Possum Kingdom Lake fire now wildfire racing through parched fields and woods may get as far as Fort Worth - one of Texas's largest cities, with nearly 750,000 residents.

By yesterday, it had burned nearly destroyed 30 homes and a church and forced hundreds of residents to flee the area, Texas Forest Service spokesman Marq Webb said.

However Webb said crews would be able to use firefighting tactics to keep the blaze from the city.

'It's still a long way out there. God help us if it goes that far,' Webb said. 'Stranger things have happened, but we're not even thinking that at this point.'

The statewide drought, hot temperatures and gusting winds have made for ideal conditions that have allowed wildfires to ignite and spread quickly across much of the state.

Red skies: A firefighter walks in front of a huge blaze heading towards a home in Strawn. New wildfires are starting daily, according to authorities

Red alert: Emergency crews have been taking to light air craft to drop fire retardant slurry in Texas this week after the fires raged out of control

A deer running from wildfires near Possum Kingdom Lake and (right) the bird's-eye view of the region

But the dry conditions in the neighbouring state of Oklahoma is also a worry for officials. Several large scale fires are currently mapped on the state line and two are in Oklahoma itself.



The National Interagency Fire Center's criteria for a large wildfire is 100 acres of timber or 300 acres of grass or brush.

Authorities ordered the 400 residents of Palo Pinto, about 50 miles west of Fort Worth, to leave the city yesterday evening because of the advancing flames, said Trooper Gary Rozzell of the Texas Department of Public Safety. The county's jail inmates also were evacuated.



But in other towns between the fire and Fort Worth, residents didn't seem worried that the blaze could reach them.

'We don't have the underbrush here, and there are many communities and other developed areas before the fire would get to Fort Worth or Dallas,' said Jimmy Peters, who lives in Willow Park, about 30 miles west of Fort Worth.

Area of destruction: A wildfire map shows just how many blazes are sweeping through Texas, left, while a bull runs out of a field and on to a road to escape a fire sweeping through Graford

USING MOST RECENT DATA

Bryson Complex, Jack County

Burnt area: 7,500acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: $10K

Containment Status: 50% contained

Pipeline, Tyler County

Burnt area: 7,000acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: Unknown

Containment Status: 75% contained

McPherson, Sutton County

Burnt area: 2,307acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: $7K

Containment Status: 90% contained

Southwest Royal, Garza County

Burnt area: 2,000acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: Unknown

Containment Status: 90% contained

Mossy Rock Ranch, Stephens County

Burnt area: 330acres

Size change: (24 hours)

Containment cost to date: Unknown

Containment Status: 80% contained

Yates Field, Pecos County

Burnt area: 300acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: $3K

Containment Status: 90% contained

Wichita County Complex, Wichita County

Burnt area: 11,785acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: $17k

Containment Status: 100% contained

Hickman, Midland County

Burnt area: 16,500acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: $81K

Containment Status: 100% contained

Dad's Corner, Archer County

Burnt area: 6,100acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: Unknown

Containment Status: 100% contained

CR 104, Eastland County

Burnt area: 2,000acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: Unknown

Containment Status: 100% contained

CR 4600, Tyler County (20 yr old plantation)

Burnt area: 130cres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: Unknown

Containment Status: 100% contained Source: National Interagency Coordination Center



TEXAS WILDFIRES - A BREAKDOWN

PK West, Stephens County

Burnt area: 147,973acres

Size change: (24 hours) 87,238acres - 144% increase

Containment cost to date: $355K

Containment Status: 25% contained

Rock House, Presidio County

Burnt area: 200,302acres

Size change: 1,301acres

Containment cost to date:$1.5m

Containment Status: 75% contained

Cooper Mountain Ranch, Kent County

Burnt area: 162,625acres

Size change: (24 hours) 152acres

Containment cost to date: $1.4m

Containment Status: 80% contained

Wildcat, Coke County

Burnt area: 158,867acres

Size change: (24 hours) 8,867acres

Containment cost to date: $580K

Containment Status: 10% contained

Swenson, Stonewall County

Burnt area: 122,500acres

Size change: (24 hours)

Containment cost to date: $2.6m

Containment Status: 90% contained

Frying Pan Ranch, Andrews County

Burnt area: 80,907acres

Size change: (24 hours)

Containment cost to date: $277K

Containment Status: 90% contained

Little Smokey, Pecos County

Burnt area: 27,895acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: $112K

Containment Status: 90% contained

DHR, Pecos County

Burnt area: 26,284acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date: $129K

Containment Status: 90% contained

Sutton, Crockett County

Burnt area: 25,000acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date:$886K

Containment Status: 70% contained

Encino, Tom Green County

Burnt area: 12,659acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date:$62k

Containment Status: 90% contained

Cannon, Terrill County

Burnt area: 9,284acres

Size change: (24 hours) 0

Containment cost to date:$45k

Containment Status: 90% contained



Several of the state's largest cities have been on the alert since a weekend wildfire in Austin destroyed 10 homes after starting on the outskirts of town.



Authorities say that fire started when homeless man, Michael Weathers, left his campfire untended and the wind blew an ember into the tinder-dry vegetation that can be found throughout the state.



The fire spread quickly and forced the evacuation of about 200 homes before crews were able to contain it. Weathers has since been charged with arson.



'We absolutely saw what happened (in Austin), and we do have similar dry conditions and very windy conditions,' said Melissa Sparks, a San Antonio Fire Department spokeswoman.



'We are prepared in case it happens, but there's not really an opportunity for us to go out and mow everybody's lawns for them.'



Jason Evans, a spokesman for the Dallas Fire Department, said some of the city's populated areas are close to rural regions full of parched grass and brush.



'I think people are guilty of thinking, "This can't happen here,"' Evans said. 'There's a lot of people in Texas who thought that when they saw wildfires in Colorado and California, but now they are realising it can happen in Texas, too.'

Weary firefighters had some reason for hope as rain and higher humidity levels were forecast for the rest of the week in parts of the state.



A 20 to 30 per cent chance of rain was forecast for today and Thursday in the North Texas area, said Daniel Huckaby, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.



'Some areas will get some rainfall, but unfortunately most will not. And with the chaotic wind that thunderstorms can produce, and the lightening they can produce, that can make matters worse,' Huckaby said.



But as the humidity levels rise, 'even without the rain, conditions are looking more positive.'

Texas usually receives up to 15 inches of rain a year but in the last six months it has seen just 13-hundredths of an inch in the west of the state.



Some 11 new blazes broke out on Monday as firefighters continued to battle those that had been raging for days, with huge flames forcing residents to leave at least three towns.

And on Sunday the Texas Forest Service actually started some fires themselves. These 'controlled burns' were to get rid of fuel on the mountain around McDonald Observatory.



These aimed to starve the Rock House wildfire of fuel should it head back in that direction.



In Graham and Graford, several neighbourhoods were ravaged by the flames and houses near Possum Kingdom Lake were shown to be burnt-out shells.



Fire forecast: A 'significant fire potential' map from yesterday, left, shows Texas and its neighbouring states had dry conditions and were at high risk of wildfire, while today's map, right, shows some let up with significant risk of ignition of dry brush or timber from lightning



Tough task: Volunteer firefighters battling a blaze in Graford, Texas. Fire crews from 34 states have now joined the effort to bring the fires under control

Advancing: The fires have roared through one million acres of land

San Diego County firefighter Jason Lambirth surveys the blaze in Strawn. Weary firefighters had some reason for hope as rain and higher humidity levels were forecast for the rest of the week in parts of the state

Texas State Troopers Aaron Lewis and Greg Sullivan open a gate to allow livestock to escape in Graford as smoke billows out behind them. Texas usually receives up to 15 inches of rain a year but in the last six months it has seen just 13-hundredths of an inch in the west of the state

Residents were also evacuated from Palo Pinto, which is around 70 miles from Fort Worth, with buses sent to rescue prisoners.



Jackie Fewell and her husband were evacuated from their home near Possum Kingdom Lake and are having to stay in a hotel, which she has turned into an information hub for the fires.



Fires there have raged for almost a week, tearing through several communities and consuming 150,000 acres, destroying 150 homes and a church.



Mrs Fewell, who works in a real estate company, said people were desperate for accurate information and that she was receiving up to 100 e-mails an hour.



She and her team have been talking to residents who refuse to evacuate, listening to police scanning equipment and even watching a live feed from a security camera at one of the houses.



White ash was falling from the sky in several nearby towns throughout the day yesterday, and National Guard helicopters from Austin and heavy air tankers could be seen dumping water to aid ground efforts.



Mrs Fewell said her blog has kept her from worrying about her home, which she found out on Tuesday was not in the path of the fire.

