Sixty separate wildfires, whipped by strong winds, were burning across Texas on Monday, destroying hundreds of homes and killing at least two people, officials said. Authorities in Gregg County, in north-east Texas, say a 20-year-old woman and her 18-month-old daughter were killed on Sunday when they were trapped in their mobile home by flames.
The Texas Forest Service estimates 424 homes may have been destroyed so far, including 300 from the so-called Bastrop County Complex fire east of Austin. Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is running as a Republican presidential candidate, is cutting short his campaigning and returning from South Carolina to Texas on Monday. "I urge Texans to take extreme caution as we continue to see the devastating effects of sweeping wildfires impacting both rural and urban areas of the state," Perry said in a statement.
Perry had been slated to participate in televised forum with other Republican candidates on Monday. More than 3.6 million acres (1.5 million hectares) in Texas have been scorched by wildfires since November, fed by a continuing drought that has caused more than $5 billion in damage to the state's agricultural industry and shows no sign of easing any time soon.
The Texas Forest Service responded on Sunday to 63 new fires burning on more than 32,000 acres (13,000 hectares), including 22 new large fires. Officials said the worst of the fires was the Bastrop County Complex fire, which stretched for 16 miles (26 km). Officials said the fire had jumped a road that they had hoped to set up as a barrier, and has now spread to 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares).