More than 1000 homes have been destroyed in at least 57 wildfires across rain-starved Texas, most of them in one devastating blaze close to Austin that is still raging out of control, officials said.
Speaking at a news conference near one of the fire-ravaged areas on Tuesday, Texas Governor Rick Perry said more than 100,000 acres have burned in the drought-stricken state.
The Texas Forest Service says nearly 600 of the torched homes were in Bastrop County, about 40 kilometres from Austin, the state capital.
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The agency said that blaze was still uncontained on Tuesday. It was the most destructive fire of the year for a state that has had more than 1.21 million hectares burned, said state
emergency management chief Nim Kidd.
The number of destroyed homes is expected to go higher as officials assess hard-hit areas, Kidd said.
Perry, who interrupted his campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, toured one of the fire-ravaged neighbourhoods on Tuesday morning.
Calmer winds on Tuesday were expected to help in the battle against wildfires that flared up when strong winds fed by Tropical Storm Lee swept across Texas over Labour Day weekend.
Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Victoria Koenig said it was too early to say how much progress was made fighting the wildfire in Bastrop County overnight. The agency says the fire has grown to 12,140ha.
"It's encouraging we don't have winds right now, not like yesterday," Koenig said early on Tuesday.
Even with the encouraging conditions, Koenig said it was a "tough, tough fire" that was raging through rugged terrain, including a ridge of hills.
"You can still see the hills glowing quite a bit," she said.
At least 5000 people were forced from their homes in Bastrop County, and about 400 were in emergency shelters, officials said on Monday. School and school-related activities were cancelled on Tuesday.
In Bastrop, a town of about 6000 people along the Colorado River, huge clouds of smoke soared into the sky and hung over downtown on Monday. When winds picked up, flames flared over the tops of trees.
Helicopters and planes loaded with water flew overhead, and firefighters along a state highway outside the city converged around homes catching fire.
The fire was far enough away from Austin that the city was not threatened, but it consumed land along a line that stretched for about 25km, Texas Forest Service officials said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, and officials said they knew of no residents trapped in their homes.
On Sunday, about 320km to the northeast in Gladewater, a 20-year-old woman and her 18-month-old daughter died when a fast-moving wildfire gutted their mobile home.
