Today we are updating the map that we provided yesterday of the Bastrop fire and trying a new format, a gallery of maps. Above you will see three maps of the fire, topographic, street, and satellite. Click on them to see larger versions, then hit your “back” button to return to this article. All of the maps have graphics representing heat detected by satellites at 4:00 a.m. CT September 7 . Red is for active burning, yellow is heat detected within the previous 12 hours, and black represents heat detected within the previous 24 hours.
The two people that died in the fire have not yet been identified, except that they were not public safety personnel. The fire has now burned approximately 38,000 acres and the containment increased from zero to 30 percent today. The number of structures burned, according to the National Situation Report, has changed from the earlier estimate of 600, to 550.
[UPDATE at 11:00 a.m. CT: The Texas Forest Service reported this morning: “An assessment has been completed on the Bastrop County Complex and 785 homes have been reported destroyed.” Farther down in the TFS report it says about the Bastrop fire: “An assessment team has confirmed 885 homes have been destroyed”.]
The Bastrop fire is the largest fire currently burning in Texas. The Southern Area’s Type 1 Red Incident Management Team will be in place early Wednesday morning.
As you can see, the map shows very little fire activity within the last 12 hours. This is most likely due to some of these factors:
- The wind has decreased from the 30+ mph produced by tropical storm Lee to the 5-10 mph we have seen over the last 24 hours. Even less wind, 2-10 mph, is predicted through Thursday. Wind is the primary factor that turns small fires into large conflagrations.
- In some places the fire is running out of fuel, moving out of the forested areas and into agricultural areas.
- More firefighting resources on the ground and in the air are fighting the fire.
We posted information about the other fires burning in Texas here.
An interesting footnote. You may have noticed on the lower-right side of the satellite imagery map the name “LUECKE” spelled out in green. The landowner clear-cut trees on the property, leaving enough to see the letters. They are huge, and span about 2.5 miles from the “L” to the last “E”. Astronauts on the International Space Station use these letters to check the resolution of their cameras.
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Owned property in Circle D. Sold it a couple years ago to a family who was going to build their home on it. Any way to check and see if this was in the area consumed by fire?
Marlene: The article we put up today contains a link to a list of homes that burned. Always check our home page for the latest news.
This might help some of you out of staters. It is a list of homes that they know were destroyed. With that info you might be able to narrow down if the addresses you are interested in are in the burned areas. http://media2.kxan.com/PDF/ListDestroyedStructures.pdf
The convention center has a list of all the homes burned but the list is far from complete as they should get a better total today.
God Bless this little town. We have so many great people here that lost everything. Two people (and their families) who work here at my gallery lost their homes.
Thank God more lives weren’t lost.
Can anyone tell me if the fire made it to hey 71 and Kellar rd…smithville zipcode. I have elderly family I cannot reach?????
I am also trying to get information on whether the fire has reached Kellar Rd. Have friends who live on Kellar (north of the Powell Rd. fork) that we have not been able to reach.
can anyone tell me the status of Austonio up 7 towards Crockett, or if it has made it over as far as Lovelady Tx.?
My brother Greg Wilcox lives at 305 Pinehill Drive, Bastrop, tx. 78602 did his home survive the fire???
Betty Bjelland is my wife sister as of 10:55 pm we have not heard and have not been able to get in to the area roads
are still closed .No RE-ENTRY as of now.
Does anybody have any information about a house on 106 grand canyon in bastrop and whether it was destroyed by the fire. It is located on the corner of South Shore and Grand Canyon off highway 21
Please contact me at ghakze@live.com
Information on what structures were lost is available at: http://www.co.bastrop.tx.us/uploads/documents/BC_Disaster/Destroyed%20Structures.pdf
I drove a tote with 100gals of water to dump at the union chapel fire and was turned away.
I am a grown man and if I want to put myself in the line of danger to prevent my home from being damaged that is MY RIGHT.
I think it is stupid to turn away individuals who want to DO SOMETHING.
Instead we are told to sit by idle and watch s__t burn….stupid.
I just saw the update on Delhi, TX Caldwell county about 8,000 acres were destroyed. Need to know what areas were burn or how far was it from Wolf Run Road & HWY 304. Any pictures of that area and prayers for everyone involved.
I’ve been in touch with family on Wolf Run Rd, and the fire has not jumped over 304 to affect them. They evacuated the first night, but have been home since. At its worst, the fire was several hundred yards from 304, on the opposite side of the road from Wolf Run. They say the smoke is terrible, and they are staying inside, but no homes on that road have been damaged.
I have heard pleas from friends in Texas for help, and on NPR yesterday there was also an appeal for anyone to come assist. I heard this AM from a friend down there that volunteer firefighters were being turned away. There needs to be a consistent message and more clear information regarding this..
There has been some misinformation floating around out there, especially on Facebook, saying “come help”. But the fact is, you can’t just have people show up and expect to fight wildfires. You have to be trained and qualified. There are complex, tried and true systems in place for placing orders for firefighting resources, and NPR and Facebook are not part of that system.
I was the Incident Commander on the Flagpole fire in South Dakota in August, 2000, when Governor Bill Janklow put out a request to all fire departments in the state to send firefighters. This was outside the system, of course. Firefighters and fire engines just started showing up. They saw smoke and headed towards it. There was no check-in, briefing, assignment, or accountability, and it created a very unsafe situation.
As a person trained in incident command I understand this. I still see the need for correct information being transmitted via the media and social networking sites from the Communications officer
Any info on the Union Chapel fire to the west of Bastrop?