Fires Singe Parts Of Texas, Okla.

Thick smoke lingered over scorched homes and roads remained blocked Wednesday after one of the grass fires that raged across Texas consumed thousands of acres in Cross Plains, a town of about 1,000 residents 150 miles southwest of Dallas.

A church and at least 25 homes were destroyed and flames burned down power poles in the rural town.

Another fire left an elderly woman dead, destroyed five homes and charred 5,000 acres Tuesday near Callisburg, a Cooke County community close to the Texas-Oklahoma border.

Firefighters weren't able to reach the woman, who had apparently fallen and broken her hip, Weaver said.

"Houses are just burned down that nobody could ever get to," said rancher Dean Dillard, a former Cross Plains city councilman. "Instantly, there were 15 or 20 houses on fire at same time and no way to get around to all of them."

The blaze was one of the grass fires that burned across a drought-stricken, windy and unseasonably hot Texas on Tuesday, killing at least one person. Authorities believe they were mainly set by people ignoring fire bans and burning trash, shooting fireworks or tossing cigarettes on the crunchy, brown grass.

"It looked like we had been bombed in a big war, the whole city was on fire everywhere," said Dillard.

In parts of Texas, 2005 has been driest year since 1956, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod. The last six months in Oklahoma has been the driest half-year on record since 1921.

"The conditions couldn't be worse for grass fires," said Battalion Chief David Stapp of the Arlington, Texas, Fire Department.

Joel Thomas of CBS station KTVT reports the Arlington fire raced across 300 acres in a matter of minutes.

"Homeowners amazingly were standing on their back porches before firefighters got there, armed with only garden hoses and sprinklers, trying to fend off this fire as the wind whipped toward their houses," Thomas said.

The biggest fire burned at least 400 acres in a rural area near the town of Mustang, southwest of Oklahoma City, where homeowners also did what they could, reports Doug Warner of CBS affiliate KWTV.

"We've even had people out with just milk jugs filled up with water and just doing what they could, hoping that just the least bit of water they could put on the ground would possibly save their homes, save their structures," Warner said.

After the flames passed, residents emerged and were "watering their yards and standing in their yards," said Harold Percival, who lives about a mile from the Mustang fire.

"It just kept jumping. I've never seen anything like it," said Maria Vantour-Smith. They were able to remove a few antiques and other items from the home before it was gutted.

Temperatures throughout the country were about 10 to 20 degrees warmer than usual, reports CBS News' Early Show weatherman Dave Price.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry deployed state firefighters, ordered use of Texas Army National Guard assets and requested assistance from the U.S. Forest Service. Firefighters from at least three other states were called in to help.

Perry issued a disaster declaration Tuesday after at least 73 fires were reported burning in the northern and central parts of the state.

Children playing with fireworks days before the New Year apparently started fires Tuesday in Granbury and Kennedale, near Fort Worth.

Fort Worth Fire Department Lt. Kent Worley said crews had fought nine brush fires during the first half of the day alone. His department also helped battle a blaze in nearby Kennedale, where two apartment complexes were evacuated.

"It looked like the world was on fire," said Stapp, whose department joined others in fighting the blaze. "There were flames 30 to 40 feet high, just a wall of flames."

In Hood County, Texas, a fire near Canyon Creek forced at least 100 people to evacuate, said Chief Deputy Jerry Lind. He said several structures were on fire, and propane tanks had exploded.

Jane Hankins, whose home in Mustang, Okla., was charred, wept and hugged a friend as she watched orange flames leap from the roof of the house she and her husband shared for 13 years.

"We worked long and hard on this house," Hankins said. "But that's OK. Nobody was hurt."