Bastrop’s Fire Chief Henry Perry said the recent rains haven’t done much to ease the fire danger.

“We’re powder keg dry right now. The rains we’ve had over the last two three weeks and months–it’s rained, and it’s good to get it, but it really hasn’t done anything for our vegetation,” he said.

Bastrop County remains under a burn ban. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
From News 8, Austin

Fire officials estimated the fire spanned about 180 acres, but said it was difficult to know for sure how big it was because of the smoke. Crews worked overnight to keep the fires contained.

“No structure no injuries, no lives lost,” Lt. Col. Dennis Tilson said. “We actually have mitigation processes in place so that our neighbors are protected as well.”

The Texas Forest Service and McDade and Bastrop fire departments helped battle the blaze. Two Black Hawk helicopters dropped water on it. Lt. Col Tilson said it appears the fire was started during a training exercise.
From News 8, Austin

“It’s a dangerous job, a tree can fall in any direction,” Kerwin Williams with the Alabama Coushatta Tribe said.

The Alabama Coushatta Indian Nation Volunteer Fire Department protects residents (on-Reservation and off-Reservation) in an area of approximately 900 square miles. The fire department is called off-reservation frequently and is held in high regard for promptly responding to natural disasters.

The volunteer firefighters are like family.

“We all have known each other most of our lives,” Sheldon Thompson, another member of the tribe said.

They’ve known each other most of their lives because they live on the same reservation in East Texas. That bond makes their teamwork that much stronger doing a job they love.

“They let me go and I get to see the country. I’ve been all over the United States. It’s a different fire every time,” Williams said.

The crew calls Thompson the elder of the group but he says the job helps keep him young.

“I’m getting old and I like to be out here and keep busy,” he said.

The group said they have advice for the people of Bastrop.

“Just stay strong and pull together and you’ll make it through,” Williams said.

Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas
•If you want to learn more about the tribe you can check out their Web site.
•The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of East Texas has a rich history in the area
•Learn more about tribe’s volunteer fire department
By Jennifer Borget, News 8, Austin
Photo from News 8, Austin

In addition, a team from the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas spent Monday looking for trees that were still smoldering and were in danger of falling. A team with the State of Michigan drove through snowstorms over the weekend to help fight the fire, giving the group something to do during the winter, Michigan firefighter Jim Sartori said.

It will take a few more days before the fire is under control because of the dry conditions, low humidity and high winds, said Lewis Kearney, a Texas Forest Service spokesman.

“They want that fire to be smoke-free before it’s called under control,” Kearney said. “They’re feeling better about it, but it’s not contained. They’ll keep plugging away at it.”

By Monday evening, the fire was about 70 percent contained, Kearney said.

The fire, which started Saturday when a tree at least 60 feet tall fell onto a power line, burned an area 5 to 6 miles wide east of Bastrop near Texas 71 and Smithville, a Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative official said. The fire destroyed 28 homes, 12 businesses and more than 20 outbuildings. One firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation.

Damage from the fire is estimated to be several million dollars, Bastrop County emergency services coordinator Mike Fisher said.

When it became apparent Saturday that homes were threatened, the county’s emergency coordinator decided to have sheriff’s deputies go door to door to evacuate residents, instead of using the emergency notification system.

The system only reaches homes with land-line phones, Fisher said.

“I didn’t need to just pop out a phone call and hope for the best,” he said Monday. Knocking on doors “was the most immediate and effective way” to evacuate people, he said.

Gayle Wilhelm, a spokeswoman for the county, didn’t have an exact number of evacuees, but she said it was probably more than 100 families.

“The main priority was the safety of residents and firefighters, and that was proven because we didn’t have any loss of life,” Wilhelm said.

Some residents were allowed to go back Monday to check on their homes, said Elaine Acker, a spokeswoman with the American Red Cross of Central Texas. A shelter at the Smithville Recreational Center closed Monday, and Acker didn’t know how many people were still in hotel rooms. Many were staying with friends or family, she said.

Crews worked Monday to widen a control line around the blaze using bulldozers to make sure that no embers blow onto dry grass, sparking more fires, Kearney said.

Helicopters and heavy airplane tankers that had been used over the weekend were released Monday, he said.

Alabama-Coushatta firefighter Kerwin Williams said his team’s mission was to clear the area for rescue vehicles and to make sure trees don’t fall on houses or injure people returning to their homes.

The team from North Carolina was called in because it knows how to recognize hidden fire hazards and dig them out or trim away potential flare-up sources using chain saws, Williams said.

“What often happens is that fire will get down into the roots of trees and smolder beneath the surface,” Williams said. “This presents a continuing chance that the fire can start up again, so we have to make sure there is nothing burning in the tree roots.”

Meanwhile, a 25-acre wildfire flared up Monday afternoon inside Camp Swift, a 12,000-acre National Guard training site north of Bastrop.

Kate Crosswait, a Texas Forest Service official, said crews with the National Guard and Forest Service battled the blaze, which was 75 percent contained by 6 p.m. No injuries were reported, Crosswait said.
By David C. Doolittle, Andrea Lorenz, The Austin American-Statesman
Photo by Laura Skelding, The Austin American-Statesman

“It’s going to be a hard thing to get through, and I know that a few of my neighbors have already lost their homes,” evacuee Robert Graham said.

The Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office said the fire was likely the result of a fallen power line. But, the combination of the current drought, high speed winds, low humidity and an area with a high concentration of timber contributed to the immensity of the wildfire.

As of Sunday evening, the fire was 70 percent contained. And fortunately for firefighters, wind speeds dropped to 20 mph, from 40 mph Saturday, and some of the smoke had cleared out. Authorities had hoped to have the fire under control by Sunday evening, but they also needed more stable weather conditions.

“Winds are still high enough to create some unpredictable fire behavior,” Jan Fulkerson with the Texas Forestry Service said.

The Texas Forest Service said Monday and Tuesday could be “tough” firefighting days for volunteer departments. As such, officials will employ the help of a highly trained crew from Asheville, North Carolina to put out burning logs and stumps and other hot spots along the control lines.

“About two-thirds of that fire was in heavy timber, which means there’s still a lot of fire activity in the interior of that fire,” Fulkerson said.

Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald declared Bastrop a disaster area Saturday. Sunday he commended firefighters for their hard work through the night and into Sunday.

“We still have a few hot spots but we’re working hard,” he said.

McDonald said the county will work to help affected residents recover.

“This affects people’s lives, it’s a day in which we want to go back in and have some recovery, but it’s also a sad day,” he said. “We’re asking everybody to just keep praying for the families and the firefighters.”

Residents were eventually escorted back to assess losses, but when Highway 71 reopened Sunday before noon, firefighters advised those evacuated from their homes to stay away. Many concerned residents did not heed the message.

One neighbor said she had to know if her home was among the 25 that were destroyed. She found out she was not.

“Very lucky—somebody was looking down on us,” Bastrop resident Wendy Roske said. “I feel really bad for the other people because I know they are all people who don’t have a home anymore. My uncle is one of them. His house is gone. So I’m lucky and wondering why we got so lucky.”

Many evacuees gathered at a church in Smithville, where the Red Cross assisted residents as they waited anxiously for any kind of news. There were originally three evacuation centers, but two of those closed later Sunday.

“Pretty much not knowing is what’s killing everybody,” evacuee Shawn Carroll said. “Everybody’s wanting information, and understandably all the emergency personnel is kind of involved with taking care of the situation. There’s just not enough information.”

Officials ask neighbors not to return home until they are given the green light. Anyone in need of assistance or more details, should call the Bastrop County Information Line at (512) 303-1080.
From News 8, Austin
Video from Bob Banta, The Austin American-Statesman

Wilhelm said there are still areas of the fire that are “flaring up” and firefighters are still working to keep those hot spots out. She said a meeting will be held among fire officials at 9 a.m. for an update on the fire and the damage it has caused.

Wilhelm said residents are still not allowed back into the area, and if anyone had questions, they could call the Bastrop County Sheriff’s office at 303-1080.

The fire began when a large tree struck a power line Saturday morning, officials said.
By Isadora Vail, The Austin American-Statesman
Photo gallery from The Austin American-Statesman

At midnight Saturday, 40 percent of the fire had been contained, officials said.

“As of now, we estimate the fire is 50 percent contained, so we are making progress,” Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Misty Wilburn said Sunday morning.

The blaze, which officials named the Wilderness Ridge Fire, sent billows of smoke skyward all afternoon Saturday, and it forced dozens of residents to evacuate their homes in the early afternoon. At one point, more than 200 homes were threatened. One firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation, but no other injuries were reported Saturday night.

Texas 71 between Bastrop and Smithville was re-opened Saturday night.

Crews used two heavy airplane tankers, two single engine air tankers, one large helicopter, and two National Guard Blackhawk helicopters and a host of emergency vehicles toiled to keep the fast-moving fire, fed by gusty winds and parched conditions, at bay.

County Judge Ronnie McDonald declared Bastrop a disaster zone, opening the way for state or federal help. It’s the second time in less than two weeks that the judge has declared a disaster. McDonald recently wrote Gov. Rick Perry asking for help because of record dry conditions.

The area struck by the fire is home to Bastrop’s piney woods and some of its agriculture. It is also dotted with subdivisions. Sandra Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Texas Forest Service, which was assisting Bastrop County with the fire, said officials did not know the names of the destroyed businesses.

Officials were hoping that the fire, whipped by gusts up to 39 mph in midafternoon, would slow down as winds steadily decreased Sunday morning. National Weather Service forecaster Chris Morris said he expected light winds overnight, topping out at 15 mph today.

Officials at the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative said the fire began at midday with a power line downed by a blown-over tree. The tree that fell across the power line was taller than 60 feet and more than a foot outside the right of way Bluebonnet co-op maintains along its power lines, said Will Holford a Bluebonnet spokesman. The co-op maintains a right of way that is 30 feet wide – 15 feet on each side extending from the center of its power lines.

At 12:02 p.m., the co-op’s control center got a call that a line had been downed in the Alum Creek area north of Texas 71 between Bastrop and Buescher state parks and that a power cable was “making popping noises,” Holford said.

By the time a co-op crew appeared on the scene a half-hour later, the fire had raged out of control, he said.

Nearby homeowners were quickly told to evacuate to Smithville or Bastrop. Shelters were set up at the First Baptist Church and the Heart of the Pines Volunteer Fire Department in Smithville, with assistance from the American Red Cross.

Those shelters were later consolidated at the Smithville Recreation Center to accommodate more people. Animal control personnel were dispatched to save pets and livestock.

At the shelter at the church, where about 20 people were taking small comfort in a dinner of pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, evacuee Terry Carmack worried about her four dogs, which she had left chained up when she went to a tae kwon do tournament Saturday morning. Carmack also owns a horse and a donkey.

“We just don’t know how they’re doing,” she said.

Elizabeth Rienker, who lives near Alum Creek, was driving back to her home about 12:30 p.m. when she smelled smoke in the air.

She took a few minutes to grab as much memorabilia as she could from her home, including old photos and a wedding bowl that had been given to her grandmother.

She said she was about to grab some letters her daughters wrote her when they were children when she heard a heard a loud pop, which she thought was probably a pine tree exploding.

“Better go,” she said she thought to herself.

“It must be because of the horrible factors of high winds and the drought we’ve been experiencing,” she said from a general store near Texas 71, where she and other evacuees took refuge. “There have been so many firefighters out there, but the smoke continues.

“It’s beautiful property out there, with all those pines,” she said. “It’s land I’ve never taken for granted.”
By Bob Banta, Laura Heinauer and Asher Price, The Austin American-Statesman
Photo by Ricardo B. Brazziell, The Austin American-Statesman
________________
We caught up with Round Rock Police Department spokesman Eric Poteet Sunday as he and other officers were coming back from helping firefighters battle the conflagration raging in Bastrop County. Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald estimates the fire has grown to about 1,000 acres, although officials say it’s about 50 percent contained. Poteet, speaking at the emergency-response center set up just east of the City of Bastrop, described a fire that had gutted the area between Bastrop and Smithville, taking out houses and trailer homes and other living spaces. Here are extended excerpts of our conversation with him:

“After the fire had burned down” in areas Poteet saw, “it was a matter of going house by house and trailer by trailer looking for bodies and evacuating everyone we could evauate.” (There are no deaths reported, and many of the people had left per a mandatory evacuation order).

“As soon as you go half a mile east of Highway 71” from the fire-response center, “there are a number of feeder roads that go off into the woods, off into nowhere. There are roads and private driveways all through the woods. Trailer parks, trailer homes, travel trailers, school buses people live in, but it’s all deep in the woods.”

“A lot of the houses were completely destroyed. Some were consumed to the point where you wouldn’t even know it was a house.”

“The nature of the flora, these dry pine trees, (means there is) a lot of dry underbrush, just an incredible amount of fuel for this fire to consume. And it did. It’s complete desolation.”
By Marty Toohey, The Austin American-Statesman

The blaze, which officials named the Wilderness Ridge Fire, sent billows of smoke skyward all afternoon, and it forced dozens of residents to evacuate their homes in the early afternoon.

At one point, more than 200 homes were threatened. One firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation, but no other injuries were reported Saturday night.

Portions of Texas 71 between Bastrop and Smithville were shut down as crews from at least four firefighting airplanes, three helicopters and a host of emergency vehicles toiled to keep the fast-moving fire, fed by gusty winds and parched conditions, at bay.

County Judge Ronnie McDonald declared Bastrop a disaster zone, opening the way for state or federal help. It’s the second time in less than two weeks that the judge has declared a disaster. McDonald recently wrote Gov. Rick Perry asking for help because of record dry conditions.

The area struck by the fire is home to Bastrop’s piney woods and some of its agriculture. It is also dotted with subdivisions. Sandra Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Texas Forest Service, which was assisting Bastrop County with the fire, said officials did not know the names of the destroyed businesses.

As night fell, officials said the fire was 40 percent contained and said they were hoping to make a stand along the Colorado River.

Officials were hoping that the fire, whipped by gusts up to 39 mph in midafternoon, would slow down as winds steadily decreased after sunset.

National Weather Service forecaster Chris Morris said he expected light winds overnight, topping out at 15 mph today.

“We’ll probably have to continue fighting the fire” today, County Commissioner Willie Piña said.

Officials at the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative said the fire began at midday with a power line downed by a blown-over tree. The tree that fell across the power line was taller than 60 feet and more than a foot outside the right of way Bluebonnet co-op maintains along its power lines, said Will Holford a Bluebonnet spokesman. The co-op maintains a right of way that is 30 feet wide – 15 feet on each side extending from the center of its power lines.

At 12:02 p.m., the co-op’s control center got a call that a line had been downed in the Alum Creek area north of Texas 71 between Bastrop and Buescher state parks and that a power cable was “making popping noises,” Holford said.

By the time a co-op crew appeared on the scene a half-hour later, the fire had raged out of control, he said.

Nearby homeowners were quickly told to evacuate to Smithville or Bastrop. Shelters were set up at the First Baptist Church and the Heart of the Pines Volunteer Fire Department in Smithville, with assistance from the American Red Cross.

Those shelters were later consolidated at the Smithville Recreation Center to accommodate more people. Animal control personnel were dispatched to save pets and livestock.

At the shelter at the church, where about 20 people were taking small comfort in a dinner of pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, evacuee Terry Carmack worried about her four dogs, which she had left chained up when she went to a tae kwon do tournament Saturday morning. Carmack also owns a horse and a donkey.

“We just don’t know how they’re doing,” she said.

Elizabeth Rienker, who lives near Alum Creek, was driving back to her home about 12:30 p.m. when she smelled smoke in the air.

She took a few minutes to grab as much memorabilia as she could from her home, including old photos and a wedding bowl that had been given to her grandmother.

She said she was about to grab some letters her daughters wrote her when they were children when she heard a heard a loud pop, which she thought was probably a pine tree exploding.

“Better go,” she said she thought to herself.

“It must be because of the horrible factors of high winds and the drought we’ve been experiencing,” she said from a general store near Texas 71, where she and other evacuees took refuge. “There have been so many firefighters out there, but the smoke continues.

“It’s beautiful property out there, with all those pines,” she said. “It’s land I’ve never taken for granted.”

By Laura Heinauer , Asher Price
lheinauer@statesman.com; 445-3694
asherprice@statesman.com; 445-3643

Investigators have not determined a cause for the fire yet, McMyne said.
By Patrick George, The Austin American-Statesman