Texas and Oklahoma Fires - Summer of 2011

[lorann]

If you need safe pasture for your horses due to wildfires in Texas, call Mr. Matt Daniel at 832-769-1879. He can has pasture to shelter 60 horses and has trucks and trailers ready to go. He can move 10 horses at a time.

(please repost in appropriate places ~ facebook, news comments, etc)

My daughter lives near DFW and sent me this:

Lost Pines Riding Club in Elgin, Texas is housing more than 100 horses, as well as other livestock, that have been evacuated or found estray fleeing the wildfires in Bastrop County and surrounding areas.

In many areas, horse owners are -not- being allowed to bring in their trailers and rescue their or their neighbors' horses and livestock, but are being told to write their contact info on duct tape and tape it around the horse's neck, and/or spray paint phone numbers on the horses and livestock -- and then turn the animals loose and hope for the best.

 

[SurfieTX]

Bless the firefighter's hearts:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150322222659169&set=o.262341480454123&type=1&theater

 

[SurfieTX]

My daughter lives near DFW and sent me this:

Lost Pines Riding Club in Elgin, Texas is housing more than 100 horses, as well as other livestock, that have been evacuated or found estray fleeing the wildfires in Bastrop County and surrounding areas.

In many areas, horse owners are -not- being allowed to bring in their trailers and rescue their or their neighbors' horses and livestock, but are being told to write their contact info on duct tape and tape it around the horse's neck, and/or spray paint phone numbers on the horses and livestock -- and then turn the animals loose and hope for the best.

This is true. We have many, many displaced cats, dogs, horses, goats, chickens, etc. The winds flare in the afternoon while people are at work. The evacuations are called immediately when that happens. Pets and animals are left behind. It's heartbreaking.

 

[Txmom]

Im also in Tx. We have lots of Forest Service Firefighters staying with us at the hotel that I work at. Spoke to one tonight and he is from CA, and you know they have horrible fires there, he told me that this was the worst fire that he has ever fought in the 33 yrs as a firefighter.

No. 1 problem, was the fact that home owners did not trim up the trees and there was so much brush and dry pine needles laying around and in the gutters of the homes.

I understand what he was saying, my sister has a mobile home (yes, its gone) in Bastrop and she had all these wonderful huge tall pine trees surrounding her house, with dried pine needles allllll over the place, and lots of vegetation from the ground up to about 6 feet tall.

This should be a lesson to all of us. I did go outside and look around my house to see if I needed to cut anything away from the house, two trees will surely go this week.

 

[Tuffy]

My daughter lives near DFW and sent me this:

Lost Pines Riding Club in Elgin, Texas is housing more than 100 horses, as well as other livestock, that have been evacuated or found estray fleeing the wildfires in Bastrop County and surrounding areas.

In many areas, horse owners are -not- being allowed to bring in their trailers and rescue their or their neighbors' horses and livestock, but are being told to write their contact info on duct tape and tape it around the horse's neck, and/or spray paint phone numbers on the horses and livestock -- and then turn the animals loose and hope for the best.

That's so sad.

 

[Tuffy]

One of the fires on Friday was right across the street from my work. I took these pictures from the door to our building:

And a short 6 second video:


View My Video

It was scarier than I thought, being that close to such a huge fire. It moved quick too. They evacuated our building around 3 pm.

Going into work today, the other side of the highway was charred all the way up to the asphalt. The air still smells like smoke.