POSSUM KINGDOM LAKE, Texas ? Residents of a subdivision in a parched North Texas wilderness area didn't hesitate when ordered to flee an advancing wildfire, and dozens who were hemmed in by flames blocking the road out escaped by boat without a single major injury, authorities said Wednesday.
The wildfire that swept through the Possum Kingdom Lake area on Tuesday ? one of several burning in Texas and Oklahoma ? destroyed at least 39 homes and turned the normally lush landscape into a blackened mess. In one neighborhood, some streets were virtually untouched, with homes fronted by lawns that could double as putting greens, but others were reduced to rows of scorched stone fireplaces and twisted metal frames.
"It's devastating, of course, and it's going to take a while to get over, but we're going to carry on," Palo Pinto County Sheriff Ira Mercer said.
Texas Forest Service spokesman John Nichols said nine recreational vehicles have also burned so far in the fire.
Only hotspots remained Wednesday in the subdivision, which was the only one not affected by wildfires that roared through the Possum Kingdom Lake area in the spring, scorching hundreds of thousands of acres and destroying 160 homes. The most recent fire had burned some 6,200 acres, further devastating the popular vacation spot about 75 miles west of Fort Worth.
The fire was about 25 percent contained by Wednesday evening with up to 400 homes still threatened.
Texas and Oklahoma are in the grips of a record-setting drought, and a summer of soaring temperatures and little rain has meant the wildfire season, which usually ends in spring, didn't end this year.
Mercer said that unlike April, when residents had to be told three or four times before they'd leave the area, those whose homes were threatened Tuesday left as soon as they were told.
Flames blocked the road leading out of the subdivision and hemmed in a group of several dozen residents and law enforcement officers, so they turned back and escaped by boat on Possum Kingdom Lake, Mercer said. It took about six or seven trips, but everyone escaped safely, even if some of them left with frayed nerves, he said.
"A little old lady was just shaking. These people were leaving with just the clothes on their backs, and they don't know what's going to happen to their homes and their stuff," Mercer said.
Kathy Lanpher, whose home in another Possum Kingdom Lake neighborhood burned down in April, left her new condo behind and drove down the street to the lake Tuesday, where she and her dog made it to safety on a pontoon boat. She said she was among some 50 residents who spent the night at hotel that didn't charge any of the evacuees.
"Honestly, I was thinking, `I don't think I can go through this again,'" she said Wednesday. "I have my moments and then I move forward, but I just can't dwell on it yet."
In Oklahoma City, Deputy Fire Chief Marc Woodard said that a flyover Wednesday showed that a wildfire burned some 3,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes on the city's outskirts. He said four homes appeared to have been damaged but were salvageable.
"We're just kind of in the mop up stages. We'll be here the rest of the afternoon, probably into the night."
Fire Chief Keith Bryant said he was concerned that Wednesday's windy, dry weather could re-ignite hot spots.
"The conditions are similar to what they were yesterday. The winds are going to get up, they're already gusting. That'll be our concern on the fires that are still smoldering."
Red Cross spokesman Rust Surette said several hundred homes had been evacuated.
Blowing embers likely started the blaze, which was largely under control by late Tuesday night. Battalion Chief Felton Morgan said.
Emergency Medical Services Authority spokeswoman Lara O'Leary said four people, including two firefighters, were treated for minor injuries in the Oklahoma City blaze. Nichols said at least three people were slightly hurt, including two firefighters fighting the blaze in the Possum Kingdom Lake area.
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Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Sean Murphy and Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; and Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.
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