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Wildfires Still Raging In Texas, Arson Suspected In One, Two More Deaths

The remains of their burned home in the background, Gaye Jaco (front) hugged her stepdaughter Jennifer Leaver on Tuesday in Bastrop, Texas.
Erich Schlegel
/
Getty Images
The remains of their burned home in the background, Gaye Jaco (front) hugged her stepdaughter Jennifer Leaver on Tuesday in Bastrop, Texas.

"As wildfires continued to torch homes and the drought-stricken landscape across Central Texas on Tuesday, officials said two bodies had been found among the charred ruins of the fires in Bastrop County,"Austin's American-Statesman reports.

As we reported Tuesday, an earlier fire killed a young mother and her 18-month-old child in northeast Texas.

Meanwhile, the American-Statesman adds that:

"Police in Leander said they are looking for four teenagers who were seen running from the area where a fire started Monday. They think arson might have been the cause of a wildfire that consumed 11 homes and displaced hundreds of people."

According to The Associated Press, "more than 180 fires ... have erupted in the past week across Texas, marking one of the most devastating wildfire outbreaks in state history. The fires have destroyed more than 1,000 homes, caused four deaths and pulled the state's firefighting ranks to the limit."

The only break firefighters have gotten, the AP says, was "a reprieve Tuesday from winds pushed in by Tropical Storm Lee that whipped the blaze into an inferno over the weekend."

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.