Deputy Sgt. Barbara Fenley, 51, was assisting evacuation efforts in Carbon and was last heard from when she was on her way to check on an elderly person, the Eastland County Sheriff’s Office said. But with deteriorating conditions and low visibility from the smoke, Fenley ran off the roadway and was killed by the flames, the office said.
“Sgt. Fenley gave her life in the service of others and loved her community,” it added. Fenley is survived by her husband and three children, the sheriff’s office said. “She will be deeply missed.”
There are 23 active wildfires across the state, Texas A&M Forest Service spokesperson Erin O’Connor told CNN on Sunday.
“Many of these are new starts so we won’t have an accurate acreage. The largest active wildfire is the Eastland Complex in Eastland County and consists of four wildfires,” O’Connor said.
Officials responded to 175 wildfires that burned through 94,840 acres throughout Texas in the past seven days, according to O’Connor.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed a disaster declaration Friday evening for 11 Texas counties, including Eastland, and said more counties may be added to the list as needed. Dozens of homes were lost in the flames and shelters were open for impacted residents, while authorities focused on containing the blazes, the governor said in a news conference.
Rain in the forecast Monday could help in knocking remaining flames down, CNN meteorologist Gene Norman said.
“One message that I would like to exaggerate and express is that we are not out of danger yet for our high hazard fire risk,” Eastland Fire Chief Joe Williamson said in a news conference Friday. “So we just ask that the community take sincere caution in your outdoor activities and practice fire safety.”
Dozens of homes lost
At least 50 homes had been lost in the flames across three communities that were under evacuation orders a day earlier, Abbott said in a Friday evening news conference.
“Probably as we are able to better surveil damages here in the coming days we will find more than that,” the governor said.
The Eastland Complex prompted the orders across parts of Eastland, Brown and Comanche counties Thursday, CNN previously reported. Residents of those communities were allowed to return Friday, forest service spokesperson Angel Lopez told CNN Friday afternoon. All three counties were included in the governor’s declaration Friday.
A neighbor lost her home, too, the affiliate reported.
“We did lose a lot of Carbon, Texas,” Eastland County Judge Rex Fields said in Friday’s news conference. “It’s devastating.”
“Kidd fire still continues to be the main fire of concern. For operational plans today, crews will focus on completing containment lines around the Kidd fire,” according to the service.
“I’ve been fire chief here 40 years and when you have something like this … it hurts. It hurts the whole community,” Ranger Fire Department Chief Darrell Fox said. “This church had been here for 100 years.”
The Oak Mott Fire had burned more than 4,000 acres and was 60% contained by Sunday morning, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
A fire on the border between nearby Coleman and Runnels counties was 90% contained as of Sunday afternoon, the forest service said.
CNN’s Amanda Musa, Melissa Alonso and Andy Rose contributed to this report.
