"Wildfires burning across more than 1.4 million acres in the United States have forced the evacuation of 1,800 homes and businesses in one Texas county and claimed the lives of two firefighters in Florida, authorities said Tuesday. The two Florida Division of Forestry firefighters died Monday while fighting a wildfire in north-central Florida that had been declared contained but suddenly burst out of control, Amanda Bevis, a division spokeswoman, said Tuesday. "They were both in tractors, and the fire literally just caught up with them," she said. The firefighters were identified as Josh Burch, 31, and Brett Fulton, 52. Both were rangers with the forestry division working the Blue Ribbon Fire in Hamilton County." - Jenny

""The wildfires have ravaged our state, burning more than 200,000 acres, and now, they have taken the lives of two of our very own men," Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said in a statement. Texas fires force evacuations Air tankers play a big role in Arizona Southwestern wildfires worsen Arizona wildfires pose extreme risk Two other firefighters were injured trying to rescue their colleagues, Bevis said. They were treated and released Monday and will make full recoveries, she said. In Texas, a fast-moving fire near Grimes County destroyed at least 26 homes as it burned across more than 4,000 acres. The fire was caused by homeowners grilling near Stoneham, Texas, CNN affiliate KHOU-TV reported. The speed of the fire forced evacuations of whole subdivisions throughout the area." - Jenny

"The fires in Florida and Texas were just two of 52 large uncontained wildfires burning in 12 U.S. states, from Alaska to South Carolina, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center. All told, the fires have burned 2,189 square miles -- nearly the size of Delaware. About 10,400 firefighters are involved in efforts to contain the fires, with more than 7,000 of them in Arizona and New Mexico, where fires have burned 853,518 acres, according to the center. The largest of the fires continues to be the Wallow Fire in east central Arizona and west central New Mexico. That fire has burned 527,774 acres so far, the fire's incident command team announced Tuesday." - Jenny

Nasty season started ... :-( - Sepi ⌘ سپی

Yes; this fire season is really scary. Fire resources are stretched really thin. :-/ - Jenny

:( - comix aka martha

:(( - JB