Texas Wildfires Cause Seven Deaths

Massive wildfires raced across the dry southern plains early Monday, burning more than half a million acres in Texas, leaving at least seven people dead and injuring at least seven more.

Four people died in a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 40 east of Groom as smoke obscured the road. Three others died in fires near Borger, northeast of Amarillo.

"This is probably one of the biggest fire days in Texas history," said Warren Bielenberg, a spokesman for the Texas Forest Service.

The fires scorched more than 663,000 acres — more than 1,000 square miles or about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island — far eclipsing the deadly wildfires that prompted Gov. Rick Perry to declare a statewide drought disaster in January. The earlier blaze charred more than 455,000 acres, destroyed more than 340 homes and killed three people.

Early Monday, the fires burned near the border of Gray and Donley counties in the Panhandle. Fields visible from Interstate 40 were ablaze and fallen trees smoldered in roadside ravines. Fire snaked its way across fields and sent smoke hundreds of feet into the air. Some power poles appeared close to toppling as flames burned their bases.

Bill Tidwell worked overnight in his hometown of Alanreed to fight spotfires with his shovel.

"It's burning houses down all over the country," said Tidwell, 68. "I've never seen nothing like it."

Officials weren't certain what sparked the wildfires, but wind gusting up to 55 mph and low humidity made conditions ideal for the fires to quickly spread.

"It was just difficult due to the high winds and rough terrain and the fire was traveling around 60 miles an hour," firefighter Stacy Nolen in Borger, Texas, told CBS Radio News. "It was so windy we couldn't get airdrops so we had to call in other agencies."

Nolen said he's exhausted.

"We fought it for 13 hours," he said. "I can't even tell you how many men — there was tons. There were at least 12 other fire departments."

The parched region around Amarillo has had just three-tenths of an inch of rain since February, nearly an inch below normal, and no rain is expected for at least another week.

"With these windy conditions and dry grasses, there was nothing to stop the fires," said J.J. Brost, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Amarillo.

Cooler temperatures Monday should help firefighters, but the winds are still forecast around 15 mph, Brost said.

Wildfires forced the evacuation of eight small towns over the weekend, although some residents were allowed to return to Skellytown and Lefors late Sunday.

Near Borger, two people died trying to escape a grass fire that consumed their home, fire Capt. Mike Galloway said.

"The brush fire overtook their house and yard and got them," he said. "The flames just spread so fast."

Eight to 10 structures were destroyed near Borger, about 40 miles northeast of Amarillo, Galloway said. Firefighters worked through the night to try to contain the blazes.

Another person died in Hutchinson County, said Sheriff's Deputy Aaron McWilliams. No details were immediately available.

Volunteer firefighter Danny Whittington said 15 to 20 structures were lost in a fire between Pampa and McLean.

"I can't imagine what it's going to look like at daylight," Whittington told the Amarillo Globe-News. "I've seen something I've never seen before and that's cattle and horses burned. You'd think they would run, but they just stood there."

Whittington's father, Frank, suffered burns to the chest while fighting the blaze.

The crash near Groom, about 40 miles east of Amarillo, involved nine vehicles, said Daniel Hawthorne, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety in Childress. A vehicle stopped because of the smoke and was struck from behind, sparking the chain reaction, he said.

Low visibility from the dense smoke forced officials to close an 89-mile stretch of Interstate 40 from Amarillo to Shamrock for six hours, Hawthorne said. Traffic was initially diverted down State Highway 70 to U.S. 287, until that road was closed because of the fires.

Mandatory evacuations were issued Sunday for the towns of Lefors, Skellytown, Miami, Wheeler, Hoover, McLean and Old and New Mobeetie.

In Shamrock, evacuees arrived Sunday from Wheeler County nursing homes, Police Chief Joe Daniels said. The Red Cross was setting up a shelter at the community center, he said.

Shamrock City Manager John Rhodes said a few hundred people, including some elderly and sick patients from nursing homes, were transported in school buses. Some of the nursing home residents were later moved to other facilities.

Fires also menaced southeastern New Mexico, where a 70,000-acre grass fire prompted evacuation orders for up to 200 people Sunday and injured one man, who was hospitalized in stable condition, officials said.

Several smaller wildfires also burned in Oklahoma, where some people were evacuated from the central Oklahoma town of Carney.