A massive wildfire that is burning near Austin, Texas has destroyed hundreds of homes and remains out of control on Tuesday. Texas, which is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts in state history, has seen more than 3 million acears burn already this year. Winds from Tropical Storm Lee turned the 30,000-acre fire in Bastrop County, near Austin into the most destructive yet in 2011. Since last week, some 57 fires have consumed at least 1,000 homes in Texas, 600 of which burned in Bastrop County, 25 miles from downtown Austin. A fire killed a 20-year-old woman and young daughter on Sunday 200 miles north of Austin. cancelled his GOP roundtable appearance on Monday to respond to the fires. 鈥淚 have seen a lot of mean-looking fires in my time, but this one is the meanest,鈥� he said. Wildfires have ravaged the Southwest in 2011, including the 500,000-acre Wallow fire in Arizona and New Mexico’s Las Conchas fire, which burned more than 100,000 acres and threatened the Los Alamos National Laboratories.
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