Lana Ferguson, Michael Cuviello, Sarah Bahari and Timia Cobb, The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
DALLAS \u2013Crews battling the 80,000-acre Ross fire caught a break from the weather Wednesday as cooler, more humid conditions brought some relief after days of extreme heat and rapid fire growth across western North Texas.<\/p>\n
Humidity was higher, temperatures were lower, and cloud cover had increased compared to Tuesday, said Amy Meyer, a spokeswoman for the Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next few hours (are) going to be crucial for what the fire does,\u201d she said. The fire remained around 12% contained late Wednesday afternoon, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. It has burned across Palo Pinto and Jack counties, almost 100 miles west of Dallas.<\/p>\n
Boe Adler, regional operations chief with the Forest Service, said fire crews made progress overnight as flames moved toward Bryson in Jack County.<\/p>\n
The fire continued to burn near the hills around Possum Kingdom and State Highway 16. Adler said crews expected active fire in that area throughout the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be addressing areas of concern with heavy equipment and supporting them with engines as we continue to build containment lines from our anchor points and work to secure the edges of our fire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At least one plane was also expected to be brought in to help support crews on the ground.<\/p>\n
Several roads remained closed Wednesday afternoon because of the fire, although U.S. 180 reopened about 1:25 p.m., according to the Palo Pinto County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Closures remained along portions of FM 4 and state highways 16, 254 and 337 in the fire area.<\/p>\n
No deaths were reported as of Wednesday, and officials had not completed a damage assessment across the two counties.<\/p>\n
The fire is expected to worsen air quality across the Dallas-Fort Worth area for at least the next few days, according to the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n
Smoke reaches Mineral Wells<\/p>\n
White smoke left Mineral Wells hazy Wednesday morning even though the city was outside the fire\u2019s predicted path.<\/p>\n
Several groups there opened their facilities to ranchers who needed temporary places for livestock moved away from threatened areas.<\/p>\n
More than 30 horses were being housed at the Palo Pinto County Livestock Association along with a Shetland pony, show goats and chickens.<\/p>\n
Bret Barrick, a groundskeeper with the association, said most of the animals came from the Possum Kingdom area.<\/p>\n
Opening the association\u2019s grounds was simply part of living in a rural community, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople that own livestock understand each other,\u201d Barrick said. \u201cYou help when you can because you never know when you\u2019ll be the one needing help hoping it\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fire started Monday<\/p>\n
The Ross fire began shortly before 1:30 p.m. Monday near Ross in Palo Pinto County. Initially estimated at about 25 acres, the fire spread rapidly into Jack County amid extreme heat, gusting winds and dry conditions.<\/p>\n
A mandatory evacuation order was issued Tuesday for southern Jack County near FM 4. Residents were directed east on County Road 2210, also known as Barton Chapel Road, toward U.S. 281.<\/p>\n
In Palo Pinto County, officials strongly encouraged residents north of Fortune Bend Road to Texas 16 North at FM 337 to leave but did not order an evacuation.<\/p>\n
About 630 homes were evacuated early Tuesday morning, according to Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s office. The state did not provide a breakdown by county.<\/p>\n
The fire\u2019s cause remains under investigation.<\/p>\n
Worth Ranch damaged<\/p>\n
The fire also caused catastrophic damage Tuesday at Worth Ranch, a 97-year-old Scout camp in Palo Pinto County.<\/p>\n
The Longhorn Council of Scouting America said available imagery showed extensive damage to a significant number of structures. Officials haven\u2019t yet been able to do an on-site assessment because conditions aren\u2019t yet safe.<\/p>\n
No Scouts, campers or guests were at Worth Ranch when the fire reached the property. The camp ranger and other personnel evacuated safely and no one at the camp was injured, the council said.<\/p>\n
The organization said the full extent of the damage would not be known until assessment teams could safely enter the property. Buildings could be unstable, hazardous materials might be present and the condition of roads and utilities remained unknown.<\/p>\n
Palo Pinto County emergency officials separately reported that at least five structures had been destroyed. It was unclear whether that count included buildings at Worth Ranch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lana Ferguson, Michael Cuviello, Sarah Bahari and Timia Cobb, The Dallas Morning News Dallas Morning News DALLAS \u2013Crews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-418059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}