Fires burn across Texas with no end in sight

She, her husband and two kids were allowed to return to their home Monday and found it in one piece after a wildfire swept the area. Some of their neighbors were not as fortunate; Kazinform cites CNN.

"We definitely feel lucky," Rogers-Smith said in a telephone interview from her home in southwest Austin. "The wind was blowing in the complete opposite direction of our house."

She said several other homes in her area were damaged and that at least two were burned to their foundations, leaving just metal and ash as reminders of what was.

Dozens of large fires continued to burn out of control Monday in Texas in what officials have described as unprecedented conditions that show no signs of abating soon.

"We're experiencing conditions never seen in Texas before," said Marq Webb, a spokesman with the Texas Forest Service. "Yesterday, we had 1,400 people and that number will go up today," he said in a telephone interview Monday from the service's incident command center in Merkel just west of Abilene.

In all, the Forest Service has been asked to help battle fires covering some 700,000 acres, said Webb.

Thirty-one fires were being fought in East Texas; another 11 fires in West Texas, officials said; Kazinform refers to CNN.

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