sort of shocked we don't have this already, it's a pretty big story that's been going on for nearly a week now. if you visit the site, some of the pictures are absolutely unreal.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180344,00.html

Firefighters Search Burned-Out Towns for Survivors

Monday, January 02, 2006

RINGGOLD, Texas — Authorities went house to house in a search for victims in burned-out towns Monday as firefighters in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma battled grass fires across the drought-stricken region.

Since Tuesday, fires have charred thousands of acres of grassland and farmland and destroyed more than 250 structures in the three states. Four deaths were reported last week in Texas and Oklahoma.

One of the weekend blazes destroyed most of this ranch-and-cattle town of some 100 people near the Oklahoma line, burning about 50 homes and 40,000 acres as wind swept the fire 13 miles from Ringgold to Nocona.

"It didn't take 30 minutes," Carol Ezzell said of the blaze's run through town, destroying all but seven buildings on Main Street, including the post office.

She said the wind caused little fire tornadoes. "It was just turning, and every time it would make a loop it would just leap" and begin burning somewhere new, she said.

Everyone had been accounted for in Ringgold, but crews searched from house to house for potential casualties in other fire-blackened towns, including Kokomo and Cross Plains, where more than 90 homes and a church were destroyed last week.

The weather service said conditions could worsen Tuesday, with low humidity and above-normal temperatures in the 70s in a region experiencing one of its worst droughts in 50 years. Forecasters also predicted high winds, which make fighting the fires from the air more difficult.

"We are preparing statewide for an intense response tomorrow, particularly from the ground," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said.

Computer models Monday showed no rain in the foreseeable future, said Jesse Moore, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth. He said the region's last appreciable rain was about a quarter-inch on Dec. 20. Oklahoma is more than a foot behind its normal rainfall of about 36 inches for this time of year.

Weary firefighters remained on the job Monday trying to contain several of the 20 fires that broke out the day before in Texas, including one inEastland County, about 125 miles west of Dallas, that stretched for 25 miles. Firefighters said they were close to containing the fire but were concerned about an expected wind shift.

"Yesterday was a tough day in Texas," said Perry, who was in Nocona on Monday to survey the damaged area. "We had over 50,000 acres of land burned."

Since Nov. 1, Oklahoma wildfires have covered more than 285,000 acres and destroyed 200 buildings, said Michelle Finch, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department's forestry division.

"This has been an unprecedented year for fires," Finch said. Fire season in Oklahoma usually begins around Feb. 15 and lasts until April 15, but this past year the fires began in June and have gotten progressively worse, Finch said.

Crews in southeastern New Mexico were helped by calmer weather Monday as they mopped up four fires that had blackened more than 80,000 acres of grassland and burned 11 houses near Hobbs since Sunday.

The flames forced the evacuation of 200 to 300 people on the city's fringe — including about 170 from two Hobbs nursing homes. All but about 50 had returned home by midday Monday, authorities said.

Brothers Chris and Kelly Pfeiffer used garden hoses, shovels, rakes and their feet to save four homes in their rural neighborhood near Hobbs.

"We were spraying down the neighbor's house with water and every time you hit it with a stream of water, steam would come off," Chris Pfeiffer said. "It was like hitting a frying pan with water."

wow, i hadn't heard about this

We've got fires too. Then again, The Aussie summer being what it is, homes being burned at this time of the year doesn't really qualify as news.

we actually had it up one our site the other day one the front page. some of the art that came from those fires is unreal too. take a look:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180322,00.html

Wildfires Break Out in Australia

Sunday, January 01, 2006

SYDNEY, Australia — Walls of flames 100 feet high swept through parched eucalyptus forests Sunday as several fires raged out of control in southeastern Australia, injuring one man and destroying several homes and seven fire vehicles.

Dozens of people fled their homes north of Sydney — some using boats — as hundreds of firefighters battled flames lapping the edges of the city. Authorities closed the main freeway heading north from the city as a huge pall of gray smoke drifted across the area.

Three houses were destroyed near Woy Woy, nearly 40 miles north of Sydney, the New South Wales state Rural Fire Service said.

Elsewhere, a wildfire destroyed five houses and blackened nearly 60,000 acres in Junee, 180 miles southwest of Sydney. A man was hospitalized with burns to 60 percent of his body.

Dozens of fires burned across New South Wales state, fanned by hot dry winds from the Australian Outback as temperatures reached 111 degrees in Sydney — the hottest New Year's Day on record for the city.

Several blazes north of the city merged into one "very fast-moving fire," consuming seven firefighters' vehicles, Rural Fire Service spokesman Cameron Wade told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Rebel Talbert, a spokeswoman for the fire service, said the fires appeared to be man-made, though whether "that's deliberate or accidental really remains to be seen." There had been no lightening strikes, she told Nine News.

Late Sunday, hundreds of firefighters were pulled back from the flames and deployed to protect homes as a cold front moved toward the region, bringing gusts of more than 60 miles per hour and causing extremely dangerous conditions, Rural Fire Service Commissioner Phil Koperberg told reporters.

Water bombing by helicopters also was forced to stop at nightfall.

A change in wind direction sent thick black smoke and glowing embers toward the village of Kariong, home to hundreds of people, but there were no immediate reports of damage. Some 170 firefighters were patrolling the village protecting homes.

Earlier, Koperberg warned that if winds turned the fires to the north, many more homes would be under threat.

"But if everyone does what they're told, hopefully we should get to tomorrow morning with very few losses," he said.

In neighboring Victoria state, rain helped hundreds of firefighters control a blaze that destroyed five homes Saturday night at Stawell, a town of 8,000 people 150 miles west of Melbourne.

Michael Creighton at Woy Woy Leagues Club, which was acting as a makeshift evacuation center, said several families were sheltering there amid uncertainty about the fate of their homes.

"I don't think today anybody knows whose house has gone," he told Sky News.

These fires were about 2 miles from my house on New Year's Day. It's pretty crazy with the winds gusting to 50 mph. They are just really hard to stop. I came out of a movie in the afternoon and the sky was just filled with smoke and dirt. It was pretty spooky, it looked like the dust bowl.

Should be another bad one today. It's supposed to get into the 70's and the wind is supposed to pick back up.

We have a fair amount of your goddamn eucalyptus trees in CA. Apparently they were brought over to be used for rail road ties but the wood sucks so that didn't work out. Anyhoo those things are a huge fire hazard, so it doesn't suprise me that Aussie has fire problems.

You step out of your home here and you smell burning grass somewhere far away. It hasn't rained more than an inch here in a couple of months... biggest drought in Texas in decades. It sucks.

I'm actually quite surprised we're not having fire problems here. No rain since early October...

Yet another day of rain in Seattle. This makes 17 days straight.

hope you're all okay, silly rabbit.




years ago I lived in southern oregon during their worst wildfire season in years. it's eerie with all the smoke & dark .. hearing the choppers & planes all day, wondering when you're going to have to evacuate..

Thankfully, we usually get enough rain around here, but once and a while there are small wildfires around here in the summer. Im sure it wouldn't be fun living somewhere where your home is possibly in danger.

Yuck.

*Scratches Seattle off places Hinny would like to live in*

I returned home from humid, tropical air to dry, ash riddled haze. You go outside and it smells of smoke, and at night you can see the air thick with a charcoal dust. If you walk by a car that hasn't been moved in a while, there's a thin film of soot. I was at the doctor today and all sorts of people were in for respitory issues. On a slightly scary note, some of the fires are just down the road from my apartment.