Residents Evacuated As Firefighters Battle Blaze in Texas
 

By the CNN Wire Staff
August 31, 2011 6:46 a.m. EDT

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Texas battling historic wildfire.

A raging wildfire in parched northern Texas burned out of control early Wednesday, destroying about 30 structures and forcing evacuations, a forestry official said."I don't think I have my head around it yet, it's just unbelievable," Linda Jackson told CNN affiliate KTVT-TV after losing her home to the fire. "I can't believe it."
The property was spared in April during another blaze, but Tuesday's fire burned everything they had.
"Before we knew it, it was coming," Jackson's husband, Paul, said. "(I'm) sick that I didn't get the pictures of our folks and things like that, that we didn't have time to get."
Fire containment is at or near zero, according to John Nichols with the Texas Forest Service.
"There's still a lot of work going on and a lot of stuff that's being threatened and they are doing the best they can to protect structures," Nichols said.
Some 125 homes were evacuated, the forest service said.
Boats were used to ferry some evacuees across Possum Kingdom Lake, he said.
The blaze has burned thousands of acres in Palo Pinto County, about 50 miles west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Up to 7,500 acres may have burned, according to Nichols, who said an official tally would be available Wednesday morning.
Air tankers were expected to assist firefighting efforts on Wednesday, he said. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.
Texas is currently battling its worst fire season in state history, according to officials. A record 3.5 million acres have burned since the start of the season in November.
Hot and dry weather, coupled with a lack of rain, have made conditions ripe for rapid fire growth.
"I don't think I have seen it this bad anywhere," Nichols said. "Walking across somebody's yard that just crackles under your feet because the grass is so dry. It's just a tough, tough situation."
Texas is the worst-hit of several states in a band of severe drought that stretches from Arizona to sections of the East Coast.
More than 90% of the state is suffering from "extreme" or "exceptional" drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.