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SUNSET -- Wildfires have killed at least three people, destroyed dozens of homes and scorched more than 100,000 acres of drought-parched Texas, but the high winds that had fanned the flames were easing Friday.
Montague County Sheriff Paul Cunningham said a couple died when fire overtook their home near Montague and a woman died after calling for an ambulance in a fire near Bowie, possibly from a heart attack.
Montague County is about 55 miles northwest of Fort Worth along the border of Oklahoma -- where wildfires also were raging. Montague was battling five separate blazes Friday. Dozens of homes were destroyed, several in the small towns of Sunset and Stoneburg, as a total of 30,000 acres were burning in the county.
"We've lost communities, pretty much," Cunningham said. "Stoneburg is pretty much gone."
The National Weather Service said there was a high fire danger in the North Texas area Friday due to dry conditions and wind gusts up to 25 mph. That's down considerably from the 60-mph gusts that fanned the flames Thursday and created an extreme danger of fire.
"Things are starting to look a little better," Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Misty Wilburn said. "Today the Texas Forest Service is definitely on the offense, not on the defense."
Still, Gov. Rick Perry on Friday asked FEMA to issue an emergency declaration that would provide federal assets and resources for 199 threatened counties.
Throughout Sunset, a town of about 350 located in an area of small, rolling hills, buildings were destroyed in a seemingly random fashion. Some houses were blackened and burned to the ground, while others remained standing where residents scrambled to save their homes with garden hoses. Fire Chief Alan Campbell said the high winds Thursday were sending embers flying, resulting in the patchwork of fires.
Nine homes were destroyed in Sunset, Campbell said.
Wilburn said some of the fires around the state had been contained by Friday, but she didn't have precise figures.
The efforts were helped Friday by the diminished winds, which precluded aerial firefighting Thursday.
Though several fires were still burning, Wilburn identified four areas as the most dangerous: Montague County, Young and Jack counties in West Texas, Wichita County and Stephens County.
