Firefighters battled Monday to contain several large blazes that have burned hundreds of square miles of rural Texas and destroyed dozens of homes since last week, getting reinforcements from out of state as they struggled against some of the worst wildfire conditions in state history.
Powerful winds that sent walls of flame through parched ranchland in and around several West Texas communities—incinerating more than 60 homes during the weekend and killing livestock and horses—took pity by directing the fires to largely unpopulated open spaces north and east of the cities.
Rain from last summer's Hurricane Alex led to particularly lush vegetation growth, said Mark Stanford, the operations director for the Texas Forest Service. A cold winter and the drought killed off much of that growth, and with fewer cattle grazing on Texas pasturelands, the dried remains have provided a perfect fuel for wildfires to consume, he said.
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