Sixty separate wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes and killed at least two people in Texas yesterday, authorities said.
"I'm still seeing no containment," said April Saginor, public information officer for the Texas Forest Service, who confirmed one fire east of the state capital has burned more than 25,000 acres, destroying 476 residences so far.
"That's a record in Texas for a single fire," she said of the homes destroyed.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, the front-running Republican Party presidential candidate, cancelled his appearance at a candidate round-table in South Carolina today to return to Austin.
"I have seen a lot of mean-looking fires in my time, but this one is the meanest. You realise the devastation when you see it first hand," Mr Perry said last night.
"I have never seen a fire season like this. We have lost more than 3.5 million acres to brush fires - that is an area larger than the state of Connecticut," he said. "We have a long way to go to get this thing contained."
Officials said the worst of the fires was in Bastrop, a country of about 70,000 people thirty miles east of Austin.
Ms Saginor said more than 250 firefighters were working on the Bastrop fire, which stretches for 16 miles with a breadth of six miles in some spots. On Sunday, the fire service responded to 63 new fires burning on more than 32,000 acres, including 22 new large fires.
Authorities in Gregg County, northeast Texas, said a fire killed a woman (20) and her 18-month-old daughter after they were trapped in their mobile home by flames.
Reuters