Wildfires Ravage Southern Plains

(CBS/AP)  By the time the smoke cleared Wednesday, about 100 homes across wildfire-stricken Texas and Oklahoma lay in ruins and at least five people were dead, including two elderly women trapped in their homes by the flames.

The hardest-hit community during Tuesday's blazes was Cross Plains, a West Texas ranching and oil-and-gas town of 1,000 people some 150 miles from Dallas. Cross Plains also lost about 50 homes and a church after the flames raced through grass dried out by the region's worst drought in 50 years.

Two elderly women there were killed after being trapped in their homes, said Sparky Dean, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. And in Callisburg, Texas, near the Oklahoma line, another woman apparently fell and broke her hip and could not get out of her home before it was destroyed, firefighters said.

No information was immediately available on the fourth death in Texas. A fifth person was killed in Oklahoma.

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.

Arlington, Texas deputy fire marshal Keith Ebel told Axelrod that despite diminishing winds, he fears the worst is not yet over.

"We get another 20 mile an hour day and we're right back where we were yesterday," Ebel said.

"We had a tornado here years ago and we thought that was devastating. This lasted for hours and hours," said Patricia Cook, a special education aide whose Cross Plains home was saved by her 18-year-old son, J.D., and a friend. They saw the flames approaching the house from across a field and ran to save it.

"The fire was literally nipping at their heels," she said. "He just picked up the hose and started watering things down."

Elsewhere on her block, the front brick wall and part of a side wall were all that were left standing of the First United Methodist Church. The steeple lay across the ground. Ten other homes on her street also were reduced to charcoal.

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