Anyone have update on fires in Cen TX?

[NotoriousAPP]

The news coverage here is a joke, no one is reporting live on the enormous forest fire in Bastrop county.  I can't find any good twitter feeds either. Anyone have any updates regarding where the fire has spread to?  I would just lose my BOL but have other coworkers with houses and families out there.

I was working at the BOL this morning and afternoon, I left before things got serious but the problem is that I had no idea there was a forest fire coming, I have no means of communication out there.  I lucked out this time, will need to be proactive before the next time. 

Moderator, please move this post if it belongs elsewhere.

[TexDaddy]

I found this report: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2011/09/04/fires_raging_throughout_centra.html?cxntcid=breaking_news

[LJH]

http://www.inciweb.org/

[NotoriousAPP]

Thanks for trying but those sites are pretty vague as well.  The statesman's last update was at 8:30 last night.  I checked this morning and the news around here has no new news.  In morning meeting now, 2 of 4 of us were here, the others had to evacuate.

[TexDaddy]

This report is less than an hour old at this time: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/04/texas.fires/

this is another report from this morning: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/05/woman-child-killed-when-texas-fire-engulfs-home/

There will not be and never is minute by minute coverage of a wildfire for the general populous.

Something like this may be useful for those too close to the fire: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=2533

[NotoriousAPP]

Thanks TexDaddy, that radioreference link is great. 

I know they can't call the fire street by street but I know they have a pretty good understanding of where the fire has been and the general direction of it, I don't understand where they're keeping this information.  My wild life management association sent out an affected  map updated by the Texas Forest Service yesterday morning, this is the information we want, not sure why they're not sharing the information via web.

[endurance]

My heart goes out to you Notorious.  I know that when I was with the US forest service and assigned as a fire information officer the information from the field would take almost a day just for us to get it and disseminate it.  You have a constant rotation of day and night crews on a fire and while information is passed on at morning command meetings from the previous shift, when you get a fire that large it just seems to take longer to get the information out because the command structure is that much more complex (you may have two or three divisions of the fire, each with their own command structure and each of those divisions will have resources from 10-20 different agencies and departments).

It's a frustrating waiting game and we have good friends with a ranch in the area.  They were able to get their horses out, but not their cows.  I suspect the only hope for those cows is that they'd likely eaten every blade of grass in the area because of the drought, thus might have some chance... if the smoke doesn't get them...  They still don't know anything either.  They aren't optimistic about their ranch, but were at least hoping for the best regarding the cows.

[drthumbs]

North East Texas

We have the Bear creek fire (30000+ ac 0% contained)about 15 miles to the north east and the Diana (3000+ ac 70% contained) fire about 10 miles to the south west. We are out of harms way for now, but we did have another 3 to our ac fire start just a couple miles from the house last night, but it was put down quickly.

http://www.kltv.com/link/510293/active-fire-map-tamu

[chris]

I drove Dallas to Llano yesterday, and saw the remnants of dozens of fires. And three active ones, although small in comparison. I guess we've found one good use for tilling.

[mobilus]

Last night, our local news reported 130 separate fires, which have consumed nearly 1400 homes in Central Texas, with 800 homes burned in the Bastrop area.

It is so dry here that just about anything will start a fire.  Power lines arcing, trains' wheels causing sparks, lightning (we haven't had rain, but we have had fires started by lightning), are a few causes we've seen.  We had a fire in my community last week that was caused by a worker tossing a cigarette, with a real potential for loss of 40 homes was headed off by fast VFD response.  Wichita Falls is over 20 inches below normal rainfall for the year.  Put another way:  We've only gotten 3.3 inches for the year.

[LJH]

Checking in to see if any updates from Notorious, or any other members in the area. Fingers crossed your BOL is spared. Also, does anyone know if Marjorie Wildcraft's place is OK? She's somewhere in that area too.

[endurance]

A friend of a friend posted this video on FB. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okhcnDY9C0E

[Dust of the Sun]

Would any of you in Texas PLEASE tell me why FEMA is sending all the firefighters home and denying all the offers of equipment and assistance...PLEASE TELL ME....I'm seeing really, really sinister allegations and frankly am frightened for the very future of our country. It's like war has been declared against the american people...on all fronts.

I can't believe Texans would stand by while our government allows the whole damn state to be destroyed. What is going on???

[endurance]

Would any of you in Texas PLEASE tell me why FEMA is sending all the firefighters home and denying all the offers of equipment and assistance...PLEASE TELL ME....I'm seeing really, really sinister allegations and frankly am frightened for the very future of our country. It's like war has been declared against the american people...on all fronts.

I can't believe Texans would stand by while our government allows the whole damn state to be destroyed. What is going on???

They aren't sending all firefighters home.  They're calling in national resources and in some cases sending local departments home so they can be available for initial attack.  One of the worst things you can do is drain local resources in incidents like this and thus have no one to respond to small fires, which in turn become large fires.

[ShannonB]

I know they recently sent some home who had been working 7 days straight to keep them from being exhausted and making mistakes or taking injuries. They are switching crews out to avoid this. Plus what endurance said. Some of these fires are spreading into areas where the volunteers are from, they are more needed on their home turf with the arrival of national resources.