1,000 Texas homes lost to wildfires in past week

A wildfire burns out of control near the Bastrop State Park in Texas. (Reuters)

Austin (Texas), Sept. 6 (AP): More than 1,000 homes have burned in at least 57 wildfires across rain-starved Texas, most of them in one devastating blaze close to Austin that is still raging out of control, officials said today.

Speaking at a news conference near one of the fire-ravaged areas, Texas governor Rick Perry said more than 40,469.5 hectares have burned in the drought-stricken state.

Perry, who interrupted his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination to rush home, said more than 1,000 houses have burned since yesterday, but Texas emergency management chief Nim Kidd subsequently said that number of homes has actually been lost in the past week.

The Texas Forest Service says nearly 600 of the torched homes were in Bastrop county, some 40km from Austin. The agency said that blaze was still uncontained today.

Calmer winds were expected to help in the battle against wildfires that flared up when strong winds fed by Tropical Storm Lee swept across Texas over the Labour Day weekend.

Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Victoria Koenig said it was too early to say how much progress was made fighting the wildfire in Bastrop county overnight. The agency says the fire has grown to 12,141 hectares. “It’s encouraging we don’t have winds right now, not like yesterday,” Koenig said early today.

Even with the encouraging conditions, Koenig said it was a “tough, tough fire” that was raging through rugged terrain, including a ridge of hills.

At least 5,000 people were forced from their homes in Bastrop county, and about 400 were in emergency shelters.