Tuesday, April 12, 2011

'Horses on fire': Texas fights wind-blown blazes

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. One firefighter was in critical condition at a Lubbock hospital with severe burns suffered while fighting a Panhandle wildfire, officials said. Powerful winds that sent walls of flame through parched ranchland in and around the West Texas communities of Fort Davis and Midland, incinerating more than 60 homes during the weekend and killing livestock and horses. Ranchers were combing the burned landscape Monday looking for the remains of charred cattle and other animals to dispose of. There's also plenty of fencing that's destroyed on ranches during wildfires, making it difficult for ranchers to keep their animals on their property. "It was unbelievable, just horrific. There were horses on fire, buildings on fire, houses on fire," said Bob Dillard, a former Jeff Davis county judge and editor of the weekly Jeff Davis County Mountain Dispatch...more

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