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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wildfires char parts of Texas, Oklahoma


Grass fires driven by gusty wind damaged several homes in Oklahoma and north Texas on Tuesday, including this mobile home in South Arlington, Texas. 
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Sam Howe Verhovek Los Angeles Times

Fires driven by wind and unusually warm weather ripped across parts of north Texas and Oklahoma on Tuesday, causing dozens of evacuations and some injuries but no deaths as some houses burned, officials said.

“It’s been a really wild day,” said Anita Foster, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where smoke caused several highway and road closings that led to traffic tie-ups in the evening rush hour.

“There are quite a number of fires still as we speak,” added Foster, whose mother successfully fought a grass fire outside her home in suburban Fort Worth using a garden hose. “Having this many in our metropolitan area, at this time of year, that is a little strange.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration for parts of north Texas, where the fires were also aggravated by drought conditions.

“As dry as it’s been, we’re lucky it’s not worse at this point,” said Lt. Billy Henderson of the sheriff’s office in Hood County, Texas, about 30 miles southeast of Fort Worth.

One subdivision there, which Henderson said contained a few hundred houses, was under an evacuation order as fire teams prepared to battle unpredictable grass fires nearby.

In Oklahoma, wildfires were reported in at least 12 of the state’s 77 counties. The worst blaze was in Mustang, just southwest of Oklahoma City, where at least five homes were destroyed, said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Emergency Management.

Temperatures were in the upper 60s and 70s in much of the state Tuesday, in contrast to normal late-December marks in the 40s and 50s. A statewide ban on outdoor burning was in effect.

At least three firefighters were injured in Texas and one in Oklahoma.