Fires Singe Parts Of Texas, Okla.

Driest Weather In Decades; Elderly Woman Dead, Homes Destroyed

(CBS/AP)  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.