Wind Fuels Fires in North Texas

AND JERRIE WHITELEY Winds near 50 mph knocked tree limbs into electrical lines igniting fires that destroyed a home and other buildings and damaged another house in Sherman Tuesday.

 
Throughout Grayson County, howling winds played with electrical lines like so many licorice whips. Lines went down, interrupting service to 750 customers in Sherman, Denison, Fink and Van Alstyne. Wind-driven flames ate up dozens of acres of farmland throughout the day.

 
Firefighters from every area of the county joined Sherman's department to fight a blaze just before noon Tuesday in the 700 block Austin Street in Sherman. Right after noon, those departments not needed at Austin Street went to a garage fire on East Pecan Street.

 
In Fannin County, the winds were so fierce a building on the downtown square in Bonham fell to them, as did a utility pole on State Highway 56.

 

Sherman activated its Emergency Operations Center and Grayson County put its EOC on standby, County Judge Drue Bynum said. Because of wildfires in North Texas and the driving winds, the state of Texas opened its District Disaster Center.

 
"Wind, wind, wind," said Oncor Area Manager Todd Thompson when asked what was happening with the electricity. "Fuses have blown to a couple of feeder lines. We lock them out and that's been pretty successful so far."

 
Thompson said he expected temporary power outages to occur throughout the day Tuesday and into the evening.

 
A smoky light created a small fire in the library at Tom Bean Middle School Tuesday afternoon. School officials said a short caused the problem, which led to a precautionary evacuation of all middle school students into the high school gym.

 
"The fire department and a certified electrician were notified and responded," a press release from Tom Bean Middle School Principal Dewitt Smith states. "The overhead light was removed and the building was cleared for use. The students were allowed to return to class."

 
"The wind is supposed to get worse," Thompson said about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday when power had just been re-established in Sherman after about an hour of disruption, including the Grayson County Courthouse and Justice Center.

 
The Grayson County Sheriff's Office said as soon as the power went down, its backup generators went into service. In fact, the intermittent nature of the outages forced the department to switch back and forth from generators to regular power supply, and from analog to digital dispatching.

 
Wind snapped loose a large piece of Plexiglas, probably 5-by-8 feet, from a Van Alstyne convenience store sign and sent it flying across the crowded parking lot.

 
Drivers battled the cross-highway winds, although there were no reports of wrecks caused by the winds. Perhaps the most ubiquitous signs of the high wind were errant trash cans. It was trash collection day in many area cities and, after the cans were emptied, wind scooped up many of them and sent them rolling on down streets.

 
"We might even have a sandstorm tonight. The public should know that we are about to begin a pretty aggressive vegetation management program beginning Feb. 1."

 
Thompson said vegetation management means trimming the trees most likely to take down electrical lines in storms, either from wind or ice.

 
"We're really lucky not to have had any ice storms this winter," Thompson said.

 
He said his crews would be out as long as strong winds continued to watch for trouble spots.

 
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for all of north Texas.

 
"(A) return southerly flow and low humidity will lead to very high fire danger conditions across all of North Texas Wednesday afternoon," the National Weather Service statement issued Tuesday said. "A fire weather watch is in effect for all of North Texas Wednesday afternoon."

 
The notice explained that a red flag warning means that "critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now ... or will shortly. A combination of strong winds ... low relative humidity ... and dry vegetation will create explosive fire growth potential."

 
People in the area are advised to avoid all outside burning and welding today during the time period and to refrain from throwing out lit cigarette butts.

 
In Grayson County, officials monitored the fire danger from the county's Emergency Operations Center. However, Grayson County Planning Director Jerry White said the Center wasn't officially opened. He said Jim White, the county's environmental protection officer, monitored the situation from the EOC.

 
Jerry White said someone would probably stay in the EOC Tuesday night until the winds calmed. He said no one expected to officially open the EOC, but it was better to be there watching than not.

 
The winds are expected to blow in some colder temperatures on Thursday with a high of 48 degrees and a low of 27 degrees Thursday night. However, the chance of rain, at this point, remains at only 20 percent.

 
Temperatures moderate again on Friday with highs expected in the lower 50s. Saturday's forecast calls for a high in the lower 60s.

 
Throughout the day Tuesday winds ranged to gusts of 46 knots, or about 50 mph, said Grayson County Airport firefighter David Gallagher.