By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
Texas Forest Service: Active Fire Map
One of the most devastating wildfire outbreaks in Texas history left more than 1,000 homes in ruins Tuesday and stretched the state's firefighting ranks to the limit, confronting Gov. Rick Perry with a major disaster at home just as the GOP presidential contest heats up.
More than 180 fires have erupted in the past week across the rain-starved Lone Star State, and nearly 600 of the homes destroyed since then were lost in one catastrophic blaze in and around Bastrop, near Austin, that raged out of control Tuesday for a third day.
Whipped into an inferno by Tropical Storm Lee's winds over the weekend, the blaze burned more than 45 square miles, forced the evacuation of thousands and killed at least two people, bringing the overall death toll from the outbreak to at least four.
Gov. Perry cut short a presidential campaign trip to South Carolina to deal with the crisis. On Tuesday, he toured a blackened area near Bastrop, which is about 25 miles from Austin.
The governor would not say whether he would take part in Wednesday evening's Republican presidential debate in California, explaining that he was "substantially more concerned about making sure Texans are being taken care of." But campaign spokesman Mark Miner said in an email later in the day that Perry planned to be there.
Perry, a tea-party favorite who has made a career out of railing against government spending, said he expects federal assistance with the wildfires, and he complained that red tape was keeping bulldozers and other heavy equipment at the Army's Fort Hood, 75 miles from Bastrop, from being putting to use. Fort Hood was battling its own fire, a 3,700-acre blaze.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Obama administration has approved seven federal grants to Texas to help with the latest outbreak, and "we will continue to work closely with the state and local emergency management officials as their efforts to contain these fires."
About 1,200 firefighters battled the blazes, including members of local departments from around the state and crews from such places as Utah, California, Arizona and Oregon, many of them arriving after Texas put out a call for help. More firefighters will join the battle once they have been registered and sent where they are needed.
Five heavy tanker planes, some from the federal government, and three aircraft capable of scooping 1,500 gallons of water at a time from lakes also took part in the fight.
The disaster is blamed largely on Texas' yearlong drought, one of the most severe dry spells the state has ever seen.
The fire in Bastrop County is easily the single most devastating wildfire in Texas in more than a decade, eclipsing a blaze that destroyed 168 homes in North Texas in April. Texas Forest Service spokeswoman April Saginor said state wildfire records go back only to the late 1990s.
At least 11 other fires exceeded 1,000 acres Tuesday, including an 8,000-acre blaze in Caldwell County, next to Bastrop County. At least six homes were lost in a fire 40 percent contained. In far Northeast Texas' Cass County, a 7,000-acre fire burned in heavy timberland. And in Grimes County, about 40 miles northwest of Houston, a 3,000-acre fire destroyed nearly two dozen homes and threatened hundreds more.
Many of the buildings destroyed in the Bastrop fire were modest, single-story homes in housing developments. Others were expensive ranch homes, set off by themselves.
In at least one neighborhood in Bastrop, flames hop-scotched a street where houses were tucked among oaks, pines and cedar trees. Some homes survived; others were gone.
The Postal Service delivered mail to homes that had burned to the ground; only the mailboxes were left stand.
Residents were surprised by how quickly the blaze engulfed their neighborhoods.
About 40 people who fled their homes were staying at a community center in the town of Paige. A volunteer, Debbie Barrington, said some people have been sleeping outside on picnic tables under a pavilion, eating food and using toiletries donated by folks not hurt by the fires.
Dallas to get second medical school
Dallas is getting a second medical school.
Baylor Health Care System said in a news release Tuesday that Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas are forming a clinical training program in Dallas.
The program will welcome 23 third-year students in December.
Students in the program will complete their first two years of medical school at A&M campuses in either Bryan-College Station or Temple. Then, during their last two years, students can complete clinical rotations at Baylor and other clinical affiliates.
UT Southwestern Medical Center already operates a medical school in Dallas.
Air passenger arrested for not turning off phone
El Paso police arrested a Southwest Airlines passenger on a flight from Phoenix after he refused to turn off his cell phone.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger in Dallas told The Associated Press Tuesday the man turned his cell phone on as the flight was landing in Texas on Monday.
Eichinger says when the man was asked to turn his phone off, he did not and when the plane pulled up to the gate, El Paso authorities met the aircraft.
El Paso International Airport spokesman Jeff Schultes tells the El Paso Times officials interviewed witnesses who were onboard the flight.
The man's name and other details were not released.