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Flames Hops and Skips Through Texas Mountains .. EYE Report
West Texas wildfires reduced many homes atop Dolores Mountain to chimneys. In Fort Davis, the Texas Forest Service estimates 50 homes have been destroyed. 'It looks like the newsreels of Baghdad when we were attacking,' Jeff Davis County Commissioner Larry Francell said. See more photos of Fort Davis at statesman.com/go/multimedia.
April 11, 2011 AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
A home smolders in Fort Davis, where many residents attempted to save their houses with water hoses and wet towels.
The fires in Fort Davis hop-scotched, leaving a checkerboard path of destruction much like when a tornado touches down. While one house burned to the ground, its next-door neighbor survived. Flames burned right up to houses in some locations and then moved on, sparing the residences.
The cemetery was spared, but across the highway, homes on Dolores Mountain were left with only chimneys standing. Some vehicles looked like metal skeletons on the ground, their tires burned away and gas tank lids blown open.
Hill, the Texas parks official, lives near the cemetery and was ordered by a state trooper to evacuate his home Saturday afternoon. Hill wouldn't leave and instead grabbed his garden hose and began soaking his property. His house was saved.
"I still had fire in the backyard when I woke up this morning, so I had to mop up," he said Sunday afternoon while surveying the state park.
