Texas Wildfire Pictures: Crews Fight Statewide Blaze

All That Remains

Photograph by Tom Pennington, Getty Images

Four foundation pillars are all that remain standing from a home destroyed by a wildfire in Strawn, Texas, as seen on April 19.

Authorities ordered 400 residents of Palo Pinto, a town not far from Strawn, to leave the city on Tuesday evening because of the advancing flames, state trooper Gary Rozzell of the Texas Department of Public Safety told the Associated Press.

Published April 20, 2011

Backyard Blaze

Photograph by Tom Pennington, Getty Images

A firefighter walks across a patio as a wildfire burns in the background at a home in Strawn, Texas, on April 19.

Wildfires are active a mere 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Fort Worth. But thanks to wind conditions and barriers such as highways and rivers, officials are not worried about flames spreading to the city, the New York Times reported.

Published April 20, 2011

Fighting From Above

Photograph by Tom Pennington, Getty Images

Emergency crews drop fire retardant on a wildfire on April 19 in Strawn, Texas.

As of Wednesday, six specially equipped U.S. military planes have flown 32 missions in Texas, dropping 90,000 gallons (340,000 liters) of retardant, according to the Associated Press.

Published April 20, 2011

Lighting Up the Night

Photograph courtesy Frank Cianciolo, McDonald Observatory

The dome of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory seems to stare down burning mountains as the Texas wildfires spread near the state capital of Austin on April 18.

Brighter lines seen at right mark where fires broke through a burn-out line on Sunday. The fires briefly knocked out power to the observatory, which has otherwise been unharmed so far.

Published April 20, 2011

Running Bull

Photograph by Tom Pennington, Getty Images

Shrouded in smoke, a bull tries to escape a burning field in Graford, Texas, on April 19. The widespread Texas wildfires have so far destroyed more than a hundred homes and forced evacuations in several towns near the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

In the town of San Angelo, many residents were packing horses into trailers and taking them to the local rodeo stadium for safety, a resident told the New York Times.

Published April 20, 2011

Possum Kingdom Ablaze

Photograph by L.M. Otero, AP

A wooden owl stands guard next to firefighter Craig Howard as he yells to arriving reinforcements at a home near Possum Kingdom threatened by the raging Texas wildfires on April 19. More than 1,500 local, state, and national firefighters are in Texas trying to control the blaze, which has so far burned an area almost as big as Rhode Island.

"Never in my life have I seen anything of this magnitude—wildfires that are sweeping across 30,000-acre ranch after 30,000-acre ranch," Fort Davis-based inn owner Revis Daggett told the Christian Science Monitor.

Published April 20, 2011

Highway to Hell

Photograph by L.M. Otero, AP

Thick, black smoke roils over a dirt road near Possum Kingdom as the widespread Texas wildfires continued to burn April 19. According to the National Weather Service, a cold front should soon move over the state, bringing a 30 percent chance of rain.

Storms may help dampen the blaze—or they may bring the risk of new fires sparked by lighting, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

Published April 20, 2011

Photograph by Joshua Lott, Reuters

Published April 20, 2011