17 people missing in Central Texas wildfire

BASTROP, Texas - Texas officials say the number of homes destroyed by a massive wildfire raging east of Austin has risen to 1,554. They also say 17 people are unaccounted for.

Bastrop County Sheriff Terry Pickering said Sunday the missing people could simply be out of town, but authorities have been unable to contact them.

County emergency management director Mike Fisher says the number of homes destroyed is expected to rise further as officials enter more areas where the fire has been extinguished.

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Fire crews are making progress but concern over still-smoldering hotspots is keeping thousands of residents from returning home.

Officials say the blaze is about 50 percent contained.

The blaze in Bastrop erupted a week ago when blustering winds whipped up by Tropical Storm Lee blew over parched, drought-stricken Texas. The fire is the largest of more than 190 raging throughout the state, killing four people.

Another blaze has consumed more than 20,000 acres in a tri-county area north of Houston.

A DC-10 airplane drops retardant to help fight a large wildfire, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011, near Magnolia, Texas. The plane, a converted DC-10 jet is capable of dropping 12,000 gallons of fire retardant. was assigned to Bastrop County in Central Texas but was temporarily diverted to attack a "particularly aggressive fire" that has been burning across Montgomery, Grimes and Waller counties, said Carman Apple, Texas Forest Service spokeswoman.

(Credit: AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Smiley N. Pool)

[thebob-bob]

How many people would be alive if Perry hadn't cut the fire fighting budget? How many houses would still be standing? I guess these folks are martyrs to the extreme anti-government, no taxes ideology of the radical right evangelicals.

Let us pray.

[tvwatcher5345]

well it looks like crawford TX is being dealt with, and don't forget inhofe is right next door in OK, hey inhofe how's that global warmy thing working out for you, talk about being b----- slapped

[imnotimportant]

No, I do not believe that to be true.

I think most of the fires start either from lightning or from pieces of junk that function like magnifying glasses.