Bastrop County Complex Fire

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Coordinates: 30°9′4″N 97°13′30″W / 30.15111°N 97.22500°W / 30.15111; -97.22500
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Bastrop County Complex fire
Part of the
power lines
Map
Map
Perimeter of Bastrop County Complex Fire (map data)
Map indicating the wildfire's approximation location within Texas
Map indicating the wildfire's approximation location within Texas

The Bastrop County Complex fire was a

power lines. Within 48 hours, the fires merged into one blaze that quickly consumed parts of Bastrop State Park and parts of the Lost Pines Forest, as well as homes in nearby subdivisions. Most of the conflagration's spread and destruction occurred within a week of ignition, as the forward advance of the wildfire mostly stopped after September 7. The wildfire was largely contained in September, though the firebreak
was briefly breached in early October. On October 10, the Bastrop County Complex was declared controlled, and the fire was declared extinguished on October 29 after 55 days of burning within the fire perimeter.

Two people were killed by the wildfire, and another twelve people were injured. The fire perimeter encircled an area spanning at least 32,000 acres (12,950 hectares). Homes were destroyed in ten subdivisions, of which Circle-D County Acres and Tahitian Village sustained the most significant property damage. The wildfire destroyed more homes than any single fire in Texas history by nearly a factor of ten. Around 96 percent of Bastrop State Park was scorched by the wildfire. Roughly 1.5 million trees across 16,200 acres (6,600 hectares) of forest were either killed directly by the fire or fatally damaged. Despite the severe

herpetofauna were not significantly affected by the fire, though extensive soil erosion was enabled by the loss of groundcover
.

Setting and environmental conditions

See also: 2010–2013 Southern United States and Mexico drought and 2011 Texas wildfires
Photograph of tall trees in a forest
Loblolly pines and understory within Bastrop State Park in 2009

The Bastrop County complex occurred within the

open-range grazing by 1890; this may have allowed for an increase in wildfires in subsequent decades. Greater utilization of wildfire suppression after the mid-1940s led to an increase in tree density in the region, further augmented by the concurrent planting of additional loblolly pine trees. The reduction in wildfires after the 1940s – leading to the lowest fire activity since at least 1720 – led to a build-up in vegetation density (and thus potential fuels for a wildfire) to unprecedented levels.[5] In the years leading up to the Bastrop County Complex, the only large wildfire in the area was the Wilderness Ridge Fire in 2009, which burned 1,491 acres (603 hectares).[6] The vegetation in and around Bastrop State Park indicates that no fire before 2011, dating back to at least 1650, matched the severity of the Bastrop County Complex.[5]

Animated contour map of drought severity in Texas in 2011
An extreme drought characterized by an all-time record lack of precipitation and warmth persisted throughout Texas prior to the wildfire.

paleoclimate reconstructions, the summer of 2011 may have been the fourth driest summer in Texas since 996.[5] Temperatures during the summer of 2011 also rose to record highs, with statewide average temperatures from June through August 2011 eclipsing the previous record high by 2 °F; each of the three months was their respective warmest month on record.[7] Additionally, the mean statewide temperature in those three months were the hottest summer months recorded in any U.S. state on record, topping the record heat set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl.[8][9]

Satellite image of Tropical Storm Lee on September 4, 2011
The nearby Tropical Storm Lee induced strong northerly winds over Texas in early September 2011, producing conditions supportive of wildfire ignition and growth.

Dry conditions perpetuated by the drought led to widespread die-offs of trees across central and eastern Texas by the early fall of 2011, and most forests throughout the state were exceptionally dry;[7] 251 of the 254 counties in Texas had bans on outdoor burning in effect in September 2011.[3] The moisture content of all vegetation types within Bastrop County diminished to record lows during the course of the drought, making them increasingly susceptible to combustion.[2] According to the U.S. Drought Monitor,[a] the entirety of Bastrop County had remained in exceptional drought – the most severe drought conditions – since the week of May 10, 2011, and had been experiencing at least abnormally dry conditions since at least the week of October 26, 2010.[11] Numerous wildfires occurred across Texas and adjoining states in 2011; more land area was burned in Texas and Oklahoma since official recordkeeping began in 2002.[5] Between November 2010 and September 2011, Texas wildfires engulfed over 3.7 million acres (1.5 million hectares) of land; within the first week of September 2011, 135,000 acres (54,600 hectares) burned.[3]

Amid the exceptional drought in early September 2011,

relative humidity values falling below 20 percent in the vicinity of Bastrop. Rainfall associated with the tropical storm did not expand west of Interstate 45, allowing the dry conditions in the Bastrop area to persist.[2] Winds decreased over the night of September 3 and into the morning of September 4, but the approach of the cold front into the Bastrop area resulted in the acceleration of winds oncemore.[3] Around the time of the Bastrop County Complex's initiation on September 4, the distant tropical storm was generating sustained winds of 12–14 mph (19–23 km/h) and wind gusts of 25–31 mph (40–50 km/h) in the Bastrop area.[2] The high temperature on September 4 was 101 °F (38 °C), and the relative humidity bottomed out at 20 percent.[6] This combination of conditions led the Storm Prediction Center to forecast critical fire weather conditions over southern and central Texas for September 4.[13] Throughout Texas, local fire departments responded to 227 fires on September 4,[14] 57 of which were new fires.[15] The likelihood of a wildfire igniting given the prevailing weather conditions was around 90 percent.[16]

Fire progression

MODIS onboard the Terra
satellite on September 5

The wildfire complex began as three individual fires whose ignitions were reported within three hours on September 4, 2011.

right-of-way formed a preexisting firebreak spanning 325 ft (99 m) across. Firefighters set dead grass in the highway's median strip to deter expansion of the flames south of the highway, but were unsuccessful; the first fire crossed the highway at 4:07 p.m. CDT.[14] The two initial fires grew and aggregated into a single wildfire by 5 p.m. CDT after joining near Cardinal Drive, continuing to spread through Bastrop State Park and across Texas State Highway 71.[2][14]

CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the Texas Army National Guard
being used on part of the fire on September 6

The third individual fire was ignited by a tree contacting a power line south of the highway near Tahitian Drive at 5:16 p.m. and eventually merged with the larger fire;

along the tops of the forest canopy, resulting in long streaks of intensely burned vegetation.[6][14] By the end of September 4, the combined wildfire had scorched an area roughly 14 mi (23 km) long and up to 6 mi (9.7 km) wide, covering 14,000 acres (5,660 hectares) of land.[14][19]

The passage of a cold front ushered in a decrease in temperatures on September 5. The movement of Tropical Storm Lee east away from Texas slackened winds, though gusts remained in the 20–25 mph (32–40 km/h) range. The combination of gusts with continued low relative humidity and strong atmospheric instability perpetuated environmental conditions conducive to large fire growth.[3] The Bastrop County Complex remained 0 percent contained heading into the afternoon of September 5,[20] with its advance still unperturbed by firefighting efforts.[21] Flames reached the Colorado River and crossed south of the river twice during the day, hamstringing the ability for firefighters to obtain water.[22][23] State officials stated on September 5 that the Bastrop County Complex had destroyed 476 homes, setting a record for the most homes destroyed by a single wildfire in Texas. The fire had engulfed over 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares) but its spread north of the Colorado River had slowed. Over 250 firefighters were working on containing the fire's spread, aided by bulldozers to create firebreaks and TFS air tankers.[24]

Texas National Guard
bulldozing a firebreak on September 7

The conflagration remained completely uncontained on September 6. The TFS released a statement that day describing the fire's behavior as "unprecedented" and that "no one on the face of this Earth has ever fought fires in these extreme conditions."[25][26] Considerable progress in containing the fire was made on September 7, with fire containment reaching 30 percent and no additional structures being destroyed. The outward advance of the wildfire was mostly stopped, but burning continued within the preexisting burn area.[27] The TFS assessed that 785 homes had been destroyed by September 7,[28] but the enumeration of the number of destroyed homes increased significantly the following day to 1,386 based on surveys conducted by Bastrop County officials.[29] The wildfire was 50 percent contained by noon on September 10 and 70 percent contained by noon on September 12.[30] Dry weather had remained in place over the Bastrop area for nearly two weeks after the wildfire first ignited, but light rain and humid conditions prevailed for the first time on September 17, attenuating flare-ups within the burn area; at the time, the fire was 85 percent contained.[31] After September 22, 18 days after ignition, the wildfire was 95 percent contained.[32] Beneficial rains on September 24–25, including totals as much as 2 in (51 mm) in parts of Bastrop County, allowed firefighters to target hot spots more deeply embedded within the fire perimeter.[33]

The wildfire spread past a firebreak on October 4 towards the northern portions of the previous burn scar, burning 309 acres (125 hectares) of land including parts of Griffith League Ranch. This extension of the Bastrop County Complex was called the Old Potato Road fire and was fully contained on October 10.[32][34] The Bastrop County Complex was declared controlled on October 10.[4] However, flare-ups within the burn area continued until October 29, when the fire was completely extinguished. In total, the wildfire lasted for 55 days.[35]

Another fire, called the Union Chapel Fire, began on the afternoon of September 5 near Cedar Creek High School some 18 mi (29 km) to the west of the Bastrop County Complex.[36][37] Though a discrete fire, TFS operations considered the Union Chapel Fire a part of the Bastrop County Complex.[38][39] The fire consumed 912 acres (369 hectares) and destroyed 25 homes and 2 businesses, prompting the evacuation of 200 people, but was 90 percent contained by September 8.[40][41][42][3]

Firefighting efforts

Photograph of three helicopters carrying buckets of water over a burning forest
Around 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of water and fire retardant were dropped on fires in Bastrop County in September 2011.

More than 30 airplanes and helicopters from the

FEMA authorized eight Fire Management Assistance Grants for Texas wildfires concurrent with the Bastrop County Complex, subsidizing firefighting equipment.[27] On September 25, the fire incident command transitioned its response from type 1 to type 3 as the wildfire became increasingly controlled.[33][b]

Closures and evacuations

The first evacuations of homes began within 20 minutes of the first fire being reported on September 4.[16] The evacuation of Bastrop State Park was ordered at 3:16 p.m. CDT on September 4, while evacuation of neighborhoods south of Texas State Highway 71 began at around 3:30 p.m. CDT that day, less than an hour before the fire crossed the highway.[14] Buescher State Park was also closed on September 4 but reopened on September 20 without the fire entering the extent of the park.[50][51] Twenty subdivisions were subject to evacuations during the spread of the fire, including mandatory evacuation orders, accounting for some 5,000 people.[52][15][48] Some residents were allowed to examine the hardest-hit neighborhoods for the first time on September 8.[53] A staggered reentry of residents to additional evacuated subdivisions began on September 12 and continued through September 15 as the wildfire subsided.[54] Bastrop Middle School and the First Baptist Church in Smithville, Texas, were designated as shelters for wildfire evacuees.[55] Volunteers rescued 160 animals from the Bastrop Animal Shelter, evacuating them to Austin.[56] Bastrop Independent School District and Smithville Independent School District closed their schools on September 6 and resumed classes on September 12;[57][58][59] the school closures also resulted in cancellations of football and volleyball events for area schools.[60] Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative relocated around 50 of its workers from its Bastrop headquarters to Giddings, Texas, on the night of September 4 to continue monitoring the electric grid.[61] Texas State Highway 71 was closed during the fire and reopened at 8:00 a.m. CDT on September 10.[62] Texas State Highway 21 was also closed but reopened on September 12.[54] The breach of the firebreak on October 4 prompted additional road closures and the evacuations of 25–30 homes.[63]

Impact and effects

Earth Observing-1 imagery of the burn scar on September 12, 2011
Satellite image of the burn scar, which appears as large blackened area within green forests using data that approximates human vision
True color depiction
Satellite image of the burn scar, which appears as a large red and orange area within bright green vegetation using data that emphasizes the burn scar
False color depiction

The conflagration consumed at least 32,000 acres (12,950 hectares) of land, burning across subdivisions within the wildland–urban interface, unmanaged private land, and much of Bastrop State Park.[2] Two people were killed and twelve people were injured.[15] The fire destroyed 1,660 homes and 36 businesses, accounting for approximately 59.4 percent of the structures caught within the wildfire's burn perimeter.[15][3] Most of the destroyed structures were burned by the wildfire within the first three days of ignition.[3] In some cases, homes burned so intensely that their foundations ruptured.[64] Another 1,091 homes were saved by firefighting efforts. Homes were destroyed in ten subdivisions, with the greatest losses occurring in Circle-D County Acres and Tahitian Village subdivisions. Structures were destroyed in five incorporated and unincorporated communities: Bastrop, Cedar Creek, McDade, Paige, and Smithville. A majority of the structures destroyed were in the Bastrop area.[3] Based on the number of homes destroyed, the Bastrop County Complex was the most destructive in Texas history and third most destructive in U.S. history; however, accounting for fires for which official enumerations of damage do not exist, the fire may have been the sixth most destructive in U.S. history.[7] The previous record for the most homes destroyed by a single fire in Texas was 168, set by the Possum Kingdom Fire in April 2011.[3] The Insurance Council of Texas estimated that the fire inflicted $325 million in insured losses, making the Bastrop County Complex the costliest wildfire in Texas history and among the costliest in U.S. history.[65][66] The estimated toll exceeded the estimated losses statewide from fires in 2009 – the costliest year for wildfires in the state before 2011.[65][67] Accounting for the populations of counties in which destructive wildfires have occurred, the Bastrop County complex may have at the time been the costliest conflagration per capita in the wildland–urban interface in U.S. history based on an estimated loss of $209.3 million as estimated by the Bastrop Tax Appraisal District.[3] Power outages caused or prompted by the fire affected 3,800 homes;[68] all power was restored by September 27.[69]

The two people killed by the fire were found on September 6, 2011, after law enforcement and search crews combed through burned neighborhoods.[70][71] One person was found near Smithville and the other near Paige; both of the fatalities were in neighborhoods that had been evacuated.[72][73] Urban Search and Rescue Texas Task Force 1 was later deployed to the area to search for additional victims.[74]

Photograph of a home reduced to charred rubble
The Bastrop County Complex fire destroyed more homes than any other wildfire in Texas history.

The Bastrop County Complex affected 96 percent of Bastrop State Park,

prescribed fires in February 2011.[3] Two scenic overlook buildings within the park built in the 1930s, among other historic structures, were destroyed.[77] The regional state parks office near Bastrop State Park was also destroyed by the fire.[55] However, firefighters successfully prevented the wildfire from damaging many other cabins and structures in the park built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.[78] Vegetation in the park suffered extensively, leading to the loss of around 70 percent of canopy trees and 90–92 percent of understory vegetation.[3] The elimination of groundcover by the fire enabled extensive soil erosion within the park following heavy rainfall in January 2012, damaging archeological sites including those dating back to the Paleo-Indians.[79]

The fire also spread across 39 percent of the Lost Pines

Riparian forests – common nesting habitats for birds – remained largely intact in the fire.[3]

Approximately 1.5 million trees were either killed by the fire or assessed by the TFS as being "alive but likely to die soon". More than 16,200 acres (6,600 hectares) of forest burned in the wildfire, and over 24 million ft3 (680,000 m3) of timber was either destroyed or irreparably damaged, representing 78 percent of trees in the areas affected by the fire.[83] The fire burned unevenly, leaving some areas lightly scorched while burning other areas so thoroughly that all nutrients were purged from the underlying soil.[2] The strong winds that sparked the fire carried ashes and embers to great distances. Softball-sized aggregations of charred pine trees were found in Rosanky, Texas, 15 mi (24 km) south of the Colorado River.[14]

Reaction

Political response

Photograph of an outdoor press conference
Senator John Cornyn and FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Kevin L. Hannes holding a press conference on September 17, 2011

In response to the wildfire,

Obama administration for delays in responding to requests made to FEMA for relief aid.[87]

On September 7, 2011, President Barack Obama personally telephoned Perry to discuss the fires. That same day, the White House issued a formal statement, saying that "Over the last several days, at the request of the Governor, the Administration has granted eight Fire Management Assistance Grants, making federal funds available to reimburse eligible costs associated with efforts to combat the fires. FEMA is actively working with state and local officials to conduct damage assessments and to identify areas where additional federal assistance may be warranted."[88]

Community and social media efforts

Members of the community were noted for voluntarily working to save several homes from destruction by the wildfire.

Dixie Chicks, and Willie Nelson, raising over $500,000.[91][92]

On September 27, 2011, the Bastrop County Long Term Recovery Team (BCLTRT) was formed as a volunteer organization of community members, eventually becoming a

Salvation Army.[93][94]

In the aftermath of the wildfire, students at Texas A&M University formed Aggie Wildfire Relief to raise funds for wildfire recovery. The organization started a "Wear White, Wave Maroon" campaign for a home football game against Baylor University on October 15, 2011, raising over $16,000 from the sales of white T-shirts and maroon towels for donations towards the American Red Cross and the Texas Wildfire Relief Fund.[95][96][97]

Aftermath

Photograph of new lolloby pine growth amid numerous tall dead trunks
Lolloby pine growth in Bastrop State Park in 2015

On September 9, 2011, U.S. President

disaster declaration requested by Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, authorizing approximately $16.1 million in federal monetary assistance for individuals in Bastrop County affected by the wildfire.[98][99] The grant followed preliminary assessments conducted by four FEMA teams of the damage.[100] The government of Bastrop County anticipated that post-fire cleanup would cost $25 million, with FEMA funding $19 million.[101] The destruction of property led to five years of reduced property tax revenue for local government entities and services.[102][103] Bastrop County established the Lost Pines Recovery Team in the aftermath of the wildfire to assess the state of the area's natural resources and devise and disseminate best management practices for those resources.[3] The county government planned the removal of 521,000 yd3 (398,000 m3) of potentially hazardous tree debris, of which 440,000 yd3 (336,000 m3) were removed by April 2012. An additional 65,000 yd3 (50,000 m3) of construction and demolition debris was also removed by the county. Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative replaced 1,223 burned poles in the fire perimeter and added 61 mi (98 km) of electrical wire for $7.1 million.[3]

Vegetation in Bastrop State Park began to regrow after the fire. Recovery efforts were costly, with erosion control costing at least three times the park's annual budget and lolloby pine replanting costing at least seven times the park's annual budget. The park partially reopened on December 2, 2011, but closed again the next month following heavy rainfall. After additional park rehabilitation projects were completed, most hiking trails, camping areas, and cabins in the park reopened to the public.[104][76]

Several lawsuits were filed against private companies concerning the inadequate pruning of trees near power lines. A

Bastrop County government, Bastrop County Emergency Services District No. 2, Bastrop Independent School District, Smithville Independent School District filed a lawsuit against Asplundh on April 1, 2016, alleging that the defendant failed to sufficiently prune trees that ultimately damaged power lines and sparked the fires while being aware of the associated risk given the prevailing weather conditions.[105] A third lawsuit involving the same parties was filed in 2018 and reached a $5 million settlement in 2020.[106]

See also

Notes

  1. U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and documents the spatial extent and severity of drought conditions in the U.S.[10]
  2. ^ Within the Incident Command System, types describe the complexity and breadth of the response to incidents, including wildfires. A Type 1 response indicates the use of national resources for major incidents. A Type 3 response is utilized for extended fire suppression efforts and implies a more localized response.[33][49]

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