Wildfire at 35 percent contained; over 2000 evacuated

[TexasTowelie]

Emergency management officials said at 1 p.m. Monday that 131 structures and 2,583 acres of land have been destroyed by a wind-fueled wildfire still smoldering in Hutchinson County.

Revised estimates put the fire at only 35 percent contained, said Troy Ducheneaux, a regional coordinator for the Texas Forest Service.

“We’ve got crews still in the area. They are mopping it up at this point. We’ve got a lot of hotspots. You know how yuccas and mesquite are, they don’t want to go out,” Fritch Police Chief Monte Leggett said Monday morning. “Lake Meredith Harbor is still in full evacuation. No one in, no one out. … The majority of the destruction was in the Lake Meredith Harbor subdivision.”

Residents probably won’t be allowed to return to their homes until Tuesday morning at the earliest, Leggett told a group of residents.

More at http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2014-05-12/wildfire-near-fritch-destroys-100-homes-75-contained#.U3FHhigbHJU .

[efhmc]

1. Unless it starts raining a lot soon, we are in for a very bad summer.