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Evacuation orders were in place across parts of several central Texas counties late Thursday as crews worked to contain the flames in dangerous fire weather — fueled by strong winds and dry conditions.
Wildfires, which combined to form the Eastland Complex blaze, have charred more than 45,000 acres, the Texas A&M Forest Service reported Friday.
Evacuation orders were in effect for portions of Eastland, Brown and Comanche counties, and no injuries had been reported so far, said Kari Hines, a spokesperson with the Texas A&M Forest Service. About 475 homes in Gorman were evacuated, officials said in an update on the national Inciweb wildfire information system.
At least four blazes that began this week make up the complex blaze, the site said. The complex was 4% contained Friday morning, the forest service said.
“The #EastlandComplex in Eastland County is an estimated 45,383 acres and 4% contained. Aviation resources including 3 large air tankers, helicopters and 3 fireboss single engine air tankers will be working on the fire today to help reinforce areas of concern,” the forest service said in a tweet.
In the small town of Ranger — about 10 miles northeast of Eastland — a church and several downtown buildings burned Thursday, affiliate KTVT reported.
“I’ve been fire chief here 40 years and when you have something like this… it hurts. It hurts the whole community,” Ranger Fire Department Chief Darrell Fox said. “You know, this church had been here for 100 years. [And] this right here was my first fire station when I first went to work for the City of Ranger. So you know, a lot of it is sentimental.”
Affiliate WFAA reported that Friday morning crews had requested air support to help fight the fires. Aviation crews were available to help, but high winds were likely to keep them grounded from time to time, the Forest Service said.
The forest service also said another blaze in nearby Runnels and Coleman counties that had burned roughly 7,000 acres escaped containment lines late Thursday due to “high winds causing fire activity to pick up.” The fire was 50% contained, the service said.
Highway 153 was closed to non-emergency personnel incoming traffic. It has since been re-opened, according to the Coleman Fire Department.
“Highway 153 has been opened to thru-traffic and residents may return to their homes. Anyone returning should stay alert and aware. Units are still operating in the area of 153 and South,” The Coleman Fire Department said in a post on Facebook.
State transportation department officials also asked residents in Runnels County and Coleman County to “avoid the area of Carbon to Gorman to Lake Leon to allow access for first responders so they can work to control/extinguish this wildfire that has closed” parts of HIghway 6.
In a later post Thursday night, the fire department said those living north of the highway were expected to be able to get back to their homes “in a couple hours.”
Nearby, an evacuation in Taylor County, which included parts of Abilene, was lifted late Thursday, the National Weather Service of Abilene/San Angelo said Thursday night, but urged residents to remain vigilant as critical fire weather conditions were expected to continue. The Storm Prediction Center had warned earlier in the day a “highly volatile fire environment” was expected to develop in the Edwards Plateau, issuing an “extremely critical” fire risk for that area and the Permian Basin, including San Angelo.
Separately, the forest service also responded to a request for assistance in Sterling County on Thursday for another blaze that was more than 3,800 acres and about 50% contained, it said.
A day earlier, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s emergency management division to activate more resources to combat “escalated fire weather conditions,” and urged residents across the state to “remain weather-aware and practice wildfire safety diligently through the rest of the week to keep their communities safe.”
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