HOWDY, AGS! Mrs. Fool here. My parents live in Cross Plains and left a frantic message on our answering machine around 3:54. They bugged out of town (Mom said, "We are way west of town) due to the fire which is in the vicinity of their house! I cannot get their cell phone (could be in cell hell at the time) and I'm PRETTY WORRIED. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps this is on the Abilene news???

From KTXS News. All roads into Cross Plains shut down. AT least 20 to 30 homes destroyed. 1st United Methodist Church involved. Firefighters building a fire break around the school. Fires still ongoing but winds have started to ease so conditions may begin to improve over the next several hours.

nothing in the Reporter News yet

http://www.reporter-news.com/

or Ch 12's website

http://ktxs.com/

but you might call their news room
325-677-2281

My Aunt and Grandmother live in Cross Plains....just got a call from her, and she sounded pretty frantic but said everyone was OK (thank God). She sounded a lot more grim when describing what had happened.

From what I gathered, a welder started the fire near Baird and it spread. Aunt said that the fire crossed 36 and came into town. Said everything around the house has been burned.

I'm in California right now, and news about this is, therefore, sparse. I'd really like to have some updates if anyone has any.

I really don't have much more info from what sjtwxman said. I can tell you that the fire north of Baird is a separate fire from the Cross Plains fire (the towns are about 15-20 miles apart). Cross Plains is under a mandatory evacuation, hwy 36 is closed, and I think they have closed all roads in and out. TX fire services are now helping as well. We do know of one fatality, but don't know the details surrounding that. I do believe both fires are still uncontrolled but suspect that they will have more success as winds decrease this evening. Hopefully they can get more water, gas and supplies to keep going after the fires. I feel bad for the people up there, not a good way to finish up Christmas. Hopefully everyone is out of the town safely.

On a side note from a weather perspective, the smoke plumes showed up on visible satellite images this afternoon as well as some infrared images. These fires mean business.

Thanks Ags for the info. Mrs. Fools 'rents are camping in Brownwood tonight, so they're OK. Their house isn't. Keep the info coming.

[This message has been edited by Fishing Fools (edited 12/27/2005 7:46p).]

Prayers have been sent for your family...

My Aunt and Grandmother live in Cross Plains just off of 206 on Cypress/Cottonwood Hwy (880) on the north side of town. Their house is OK...just talked to Grandma at home, the house is OK, their neighbor's house (an old lady that passed away ~two weeks ago) is completely burned down, and they're putting out small grass fires around the house. My Aunt works in Baird, and cannot get back into town....talked to her and she's fine.

All I know is that the fire jumped highway 36 and came into town, and that the situation was such to where law enforcement, etc. were able to go door to door and tell people to evacuate.

Will post more as I hear it.

Andy,
That would be Zora Mae's house. She gave us a tour several years ago. What an amazing woman and house. Mrs. Fools 'rents house is across the street on a corner lot. Think you can get someone to see if it's still standing? Please and thanks.

Zora Mae was indeed a great woman.

I just talked to Donny Wilson, an old childhood friend of my late father's who lives in Baird now, and he said he went up onto the side of East Caddo Peak facing town with his binoculars, and from what he told me, the news stories about 30-ish homes being destroyed might be a bit far-fetched, as he seemed to oly see grassfire-type fires and no structure fires (which would be fairly easy to spot). He also said that KTXS's news truck (the news station reporting all of this) is currently stuck ~15 miles outside of town, getting its info from one of many DPS folks out around the area, so I could see how information could be easily convoluted.

However, my aunt and grandma live right next door to Zora Mae, and they're the ones that told us that her house had burned, so I'd think they'd know if it had or not...let's hope that Donny's right, and that it's not as bad as is being reported.

More to come as I hear it.

AndyMac,

You are right about the fire jumping hwy 36 and headed into Cross Plains. Fire in Baird also jumped over hwy 283.

Glad to hear your and FF's family's are okay!

Just talked to my grandma at length (Zora Mae's next door neighbor on Cottonwood Hwy)....

- A fireman from Potosi was helping her and my great aunt and uncle with some small fires around their homes, and he said that "everything east of Dairy Queen is gone."

- The 1st Methodist Church is gone

- My grandma seemed to think that the Evangelical Methodist curch is gone also.

- She doesn't know anything about the Robert E. Howard house

- Zora Mae's house is okay, but the Akin home (across the street from my grandma) is burned to the ground.

- She heard propane tanks exploding throughout the city all day.

- She said the fire started around noon today.

- She said the school received some damage, but she doesn't think it's been destroyed.

- According to the Abilene Reporter-News, a large number of people evacuated south to the EZ-Mart just north of the Lake Brownwood bridge on 279...a reporter interviewed two people, Greg Hutchins and Brenda Willars, who both said they had lost their homes.

If anyone has later news on the grass fires in the Cross Plains area please pass it along. Like me, I am sure there are many of us West Texans who have traveled up and down hwy 36 countless times, scarfed down Hungerbusters at the Dairy Queen and filled up with gas there. In a way I feel like the folks who live there are hometowners. I hope all make it through without loss or injury.

I went through about 5 years ago just after a tornado had battered the west side of Cross Plains. Seems like then most of the damage was to outbuildings.

Andy,
I called a Ranger friend and he said to call the Garland PD. They called the Abilene PD and they said CP was basically gone. Say it ain't so. Any word about Rising Star?

No word about Rising Star....

I'm wanting to think that the fire started west of Rising Star, south of 36..."jumped the highway" (according to my aunt) and encroached into Cross Plains. (Of course, I'm currently in Southern California, going off of my grandma's accounts in CP, my Aunt's accounts outside of Coleman, our friend's accounts from in Baird, and what I read here and on the news websites)

What puzzles me is that I'm hearing that the fire started east of Cross Plains and moved west or southwest.....but the winds were blowing out of the west all day today, I hear.

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What puzzles me is that I'm hearing that the fire started east of Cross Plains and moved west or southwest.....but the winds were blowing out of the west all day today, I hear.

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That don't sound right.

Lemme know if you hear anything about RS.

PS. Thanks

Andy, I will check with weatherag when I see him at work here in a few hours, but there were multiple grassfires across the area between Abilene and Brownwood today. The fire would have almost surely began west of Cross Plains and been spread by the wind into the town. Smoke from the other fires probably just making it look like it came from the east. Just a guess until I get into work in a couple of hours.

Just checked the Abilene Reporter-News and the fire did indeed start northwest of town. I'm sure with the stress of the day, my grandma didn't mean to say that it started east of town.

Reports from one of the first people to see the beginnings fo the fire reported flames 30-40 feet high.

Ya, looks like the CP fire started west of town. With winds from the west near 30mph during the afternoon, won't take much to get the fire to spread east. Reports for KTXS on the 10pm news said that the eastern parts of town were hardest hit. Winds were strong enough to spread the fire in many different areas, and were quite spotty at times. Probably why the fire was hard to contain as smaller fires would develop and grow rapidly. Winds should be quite calm tonight and tomorrow.

weatherag, i'm sure i know who you are, as a fellow meteorologist....


So that clears up the confusion then....started on the west side of town, but hit the eastern part the hardest.

I saw where they opened up the roads through town at 10:30, and that the reports of a death never were confirmed.

AndyMac-Mrs. Fool here...just responded to your post on the General Board. Thanks for ALL of your information...and thanks to everyone else for their information. Mr. Fool is right, Zora Mae was a wonderful lady! Keep the information coming...

We're certainly praying for all the Cross Plains folk up here in Stamford. Like fossil said, I can't count the number of times that I've driven through Cross Plains between College Station and Stamford, and I've spent many a dollar on gas and food at the Food Plaza next to the Dairy Queen. My first student worker job at TAMU was at the USDA Research Center out on F&B Road, and my boss was a good ol' boy from Cross Plains, class of 1999.

I figured the KTXS reports were a little far-fetched and overdramatic (they almost always are), but it's still a bad situation. Keep us updated on how things progress with your families, and we're certainly praying for you.

in defense of KTXS, they handled this story in a very professional manner. They repeatedly said that the reports of 20-30 homes destroyed where NOT confirmed. They also reported that the DPS was not confirming a death in CP.

As to above statement questioning KTXS's reporting practices, that's just flat wrong. Those folks are the most professional of the four local media outlets. And no, I'm not a KTXS employee, but I work with all the media on a regular basis.

Mr. and Mrs. Fool -

Just talked to my aunt...she said that the Tunnell home right across from Zora Mae was okay. I hope this was the home you were asking about.

A few updates -

- It seems the worst of the fire was within the blocks directly across from the high school. 50+ homes destroyed.

- Evangelical Methodist church didn't burn after all...but all but the front wall of the First United Methodist Church is gone.

-Robert E. Howard house, Dairy Queen, Food Plaza, Skinnys, and all of downtown are all okay.

- There's been a second confirmed death...believed to be an older lady who had been fighting depression and things like that, and may have intentionally stayed inside her house. The other death was a person named Shepherd whose propane tank exploded as they tried to go in for some other things before their trailer home burned.

- Red Cross headquarters has set up at First Baptist Church on Main St.

- Gov. Perry is going to be in Cross Plains today to survey the damage.

More as I hear it.

[This message has been edited by AndyMac67 (edited 12/28/2005 6:39p).]

Local coverage of the story:

http://www.reporternews.com/

http://www.ktxs.com/

http://www.krbctv.com/

http://www.ktabtv.com/

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As to above statement questioning KTXS's reporting practices, that's just flat wrong. Those folks are the most professional of the four local media outlets. And no, I'm not a KTXS employee, but I work with all the media on a regular basis.

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I assume you were talking to me, squid, so let me respond. They probably handled this one pretty good, but I have a pretty sour opinion of KTXS based on past experiences, namely:

1) They beat the dead horse of the train derailment (and other stories as well) for as long as they possibly can. Yes it was a big story, but Wayne McCormick & Co. were as obsessed with it as Brent Musberger is with Vince Young.

2) The weather: if there is a thunderstorm in Abilene, they're liable to either cut into regularly scheduled programming every 5 minutes or go into full-blown broadcast of weather coverage. However, I have witnessed more occurrences than I can count on both hands in which a VERY severe thunderstorm or tornado was threatening Stamford, Haskell, or other less-important parts of the Big Country, and KTXS could barely be bothered to give an update during commercials. Oh, they'll run the announcements on the bottom of the screen and a list of the warnings and watches, but don't count on much more when it doesn't concern Abilene. Folks from Stamford have expressed their displeasure to the powers-that-be at KTXS on several occasions, and have never received much more than a half apology and some sort of lame rationale and justification for the Abilene weather bias.

3) The overall Abilene/Sweetwater bias: as a high schooler participating in the KTXS Academic Challenge several years back, I experienced this firsthand, as we played Sweetwater and experienced several VERY questionable rulings by the judge and Wayne in favor of Sweetwater, that cost us the game. Anyone who ever watched the show could see an obvious bias in Wayne's mood whenever an Abilene school or Sweetwater was playing; if they were trailing, he would do everything short of clapping and cheering when they inevitably pulled ahead.

Overall, the four media outlets in Abilene are certainly nothing outstanding, and KTXS probably is the best of the group (although Bob Bartlett from KTAB wins the Abilene Readers' Choice Award for top newscaster every year). But that's not saying a whole lot, since they don't call it the Abilene Distorter-News for no reason.

Sorry for the rant, and I did not intend to hijack the thread, but I felt obligated to respond to squid.

this isnt the rivalries board, so I wont ask if you Stamford sandbillies have remotes that will change a channel....oops, I did say it didnt I?

guess we will just have to disagree on this one. I have alot of family in Haskell, Weinert and Munday. Whenever the weather starts getting rough I always watch KTXS because of their coverage. As for the Sweetwater bias in the academic challenge? Wow, just....Wow.

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this isnt the rivalries board, so I wont ask if you Stamford sandbillies have remotes that will change a channel....oops, I did say it didnt I?

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Hey man, I've got a sense of humor, and that's quite funny.

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guess we will just have to disagree on this one. I have alot of family in Haskell, Weinert and Munday. Whenever the weather starts getting rough I always watch KTXS because of their coverage.

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Well like you said, for what we have in the Big Country, they ARE the best, and they have been ever since they introduced their LiveDoppler12 way back when. I have no problem at all with their technology or, for the most part, their meteorologists. I think many of the cut-in decisions are made by people higher up than the meteorologists (at least I seem to recall being told that), so that's who I have problems with.

Steve Kersh, when he was at KTXS, was one of the best weathermen around, and I hated to see him leave. George Flickenger had the worst ties in the history of the world, but was a pretty good weatherman as well, and a nice guy. Nate Johnson is the same. Their backup guys now, though, are just not too good. But I guess weekend weatherman at a small tv market isn't a very prominent job.

As for the other stations, I like Randy Turner on KTAB. He's not (or wasn't) a meteorologist, but he's a knowledgeable and professional guy. I hardly ever watch KRBC (I don't know if anyone actually does watch it), but Doc Deason was pretty good a few years ago when he was on there.

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As for the Sweetwater bias in the academic challenge? Wow, just....Wow.

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I'm sure I sounded like a tool with my comments on that, but back in high school I was very serious about that competition, and I didn't appreciate Wayne's behavior at all.

For weather and sports, KTXS is the best, and I think they do have the most professional station. My parents watch it, and I watch it when I'm home. I think what it comes down to is that I just don't care for Wayne McCormick.

Squid, who are you kin to up in Munday, Weintert, and Haskell? Most of my mom's family is from Haskell and just about all of my dad's family has Munday and Weinert roots. I actually lived in Munday for the first couple of years of my life before moving to Stamford.

the Whites and Buntons. Don Bunton ran Smith Drugs in Munday for years. The Whites farmed peanuts and cotton all over that area for years. And now Kyle White runs a duck and goose hunting lodge out towards Throckmorton. Do you know the Hutchinsons from Munday? I'm not kin to them, I just knew they were all Ags. Don is a UT grad and lived next door to them, T+1 was always fun up there....

good detail in FW Star Telegram

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/13506966.htm?source=yahoodist&content=dfw_news

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in a matter of an afternoon, a fire that started in a bar ditch along Texas 36 killed two women, destroyed 116 houses, scorched 7,600 acres and moved so fast that cattle lay blackened and dead on fence lines.

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[This message has been edited by TheSheik (edited 12/29/2005 12:19p).]