ALBANY, Texas -- A huge wildfire that has blackened more than 300,000 acres of ranch land burned into its fourth day Sunday, but firefighters used calmer than expected winds to gain the upper hand and predicted they would have it contained within 48 hours.
'We haven't officially declared them contained as of yet,' Bill Terry, a Texas Forest Service spokesman, said at dawn Sunday. 'We had a very peaceful night, though. Reports coming back from fire lines from crews tell us most of the burning is dying down.
'Where it is burning, it's on the interior of the fire lines. That's making us feel very, very good.'
About 250 firefighters whose job would be 'to make sure the bull can't get out of the pen' were to man fire lines again Sunday, he said.
'We probably will begin to turn some people loose (return them to their homes) after today,' he said.
'We started getting optimistic yesterday because we didn't get those 30 mph winds they were predicting. We got 15 mph winds. Today we're not expecting real high winds, but we are expecting a wind shift. It's going to go from the north to south again.'
He said firefighters will widen fire lines on the north using tractors with earth-moving blades.
Firefighters concentrated on two hot spots early Sunday -- one 3 miles north of Albany and one 5 miles north of Baird in west-central Texas.
Federal reimbursement aid was approved Saturday for the state's costs in fighting the wind-whipped range fire that has swept over hundreds of square miles of ranch land and scrub prairie near the towns of Albany, Moran and Baird since it was spawned by a trash fire Thursday.
'This fire is just awesome, in a word,' said forest service spokesman Joe Fox from forest service headquarters on Albany's town square. 'It burned about 200,000 acres in 30 hours. I've been with the forest service for 16 years and this fire burned a larger area in a shorter period of time than any I've seen.
'I spent 15 days on one of the big California fires this year, and that one only burned 30,000 acres. This one is 10 times that size.'
Three injuries were reported. One firefighter suffered second-degree burns on his hands, another sufferd a cut leg and a third collapsed from exhaustion. Officials also said at least 50 cattle were killed by the fires.
One mobile home, numerous outbuildings and some vehicles also were damaged.
Two air tankers from the forest service were used to dump water and fire-retardant chemicals on the blaze Saturday and a dozen water pumpers were brought in from other parts of the state.
A spokesman for the Shackelford County emergency management group said four families evacuated Friday from rural homes south of Albany and north of Baird were allowed to return home Saturday.
