Fires Across 655 Sq. Miles Of Texas - Firefighter Killed, Dozens Of Homes Destroyed

[hatrack]

GRAHAM, Texas — A day after losing one of their own, firefighters returned to the front lines Saturday to battle wildfires sweeping across hundreds of thousands of acres in Texas that have destroyed dozens of homes.

Strong winds and drought-stricken grasses and shrubs are fueling the fires that forced hundreds of evacuations, including an entire town, and destroyed at least 60 homes on Friday. Firefighters worked overnight as the blazes burned across about 655 sq. miles, according to the Texas Forest Service. Some of the fires have been burning for a week or more, including three in West Texas that have charred a combined 400,000 acres.

Volunteer firefighter Gregory M. Simmons, 51, died while battling a 3,000-acre blaze Friday afternoon near Eastland, a town about 130 miles west of Dallas, Eastland Mayor Mark Pipkin said. Simmons had been a firefighter for two decades, including 11 years in Eastland, the mayor said. "Apparently he was overcome by smoke, fell in a ditch and was consumed" by the fire, said Justice of the Peace James King, who pronounced Simmons dead at the scene along a rural road. No other injuries have been reported.

A blaze destroyed about 30 homes and left a thick gray haze across the sky as it burned about 20,000 acres around Possum Kingdom Lake, a popular recreation spot about 120 miles west of Dallas. By nightfall, a deep red glow was hovering on the horizon as thick billows of smoke were illuminated by the flames.

EDIT

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7523744.html

[CAG]

1. Sounds like Guvner Rick "we may need to secede" Perry may once again

need to be calling on that evil federal government to bail his a$$ out

[WatsonT]

3. Someone has died, others are at risk

many will lose everything they have.

Good time to get a cheap political shot in.

I'm sure those fire-fighters were all about secession, or whatever.

[Trajan]

4. Our opponents have never let sorrow stop them for casting 'cheap political shots'

But yeah .. we ARE better than them ....

That being said - I am not too sure that mentioning the propensity of this state of disaster known as Texas to wish to 'secede' is actually a cheap political shot ....

You say it is ? .... Well there is your opinion .... We are all grateful for your opinion ...

Your statements about 'stuff' is not revealed truth .... They are not gospel ....

I just hope the free market hurries up and gets in there to protect those poor innocent folk ...

[Trajan]

2. Why does God hate Texas ?

Very sorry about the loss of the firefighter, who is an honest hero in a land barren of heroes.

But you do have to wonder; for all those who like to attribute specific current events to the mood and humor of the deity ... Are they searching their Texas souls to try and discover what it was they did so wrong to piss off the old man with the beard in the sky ?