Bastrop County Complex Fire

in 2009|alt=Photograph of tall trees in a forest The Bastrop County complex occurred within the Lost Pines Forest of Texas, a region characterized by a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) canopy, a yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) understory, sandy soils, and a mixed topography of flat terrain and rolling hills. Historical wildfire behavior in Texas has been strongly influenced by human activities and changes in land use, affecting the makeup and composition of the vegetation impacted by the fire. The prevalence of cattle in Bastrop County between the 1860s and mid-1880s may have led to a reduction in fires in and around what is now Bastrop State Park via the grazing of potential fuels. However, the harsh winter of 1886–1887 brought an end to 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 1940sleading to the lowest fire activity since at least 1720led to a build-up in vegetation density (and thus potential fuels for a wildfire) to unprecedented levels. 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. induced strong northerly winds over Texas in early September 2011, producing conditions supportive of wildfire ignition and growth.|alt=Satellite image of Tropical Storm Lee on September 4, 2011 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; 251 of the 254 counties in Texas had bans on outdoor burning in effect in September 2011. 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. 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. Amid the exceptional drought in early September 2011, Tropical Storm Lee developed in the Gulf of Mexico and produced northeasterly winds across much of East Texas beginning on September 3; the storm itself was centered over the gulf south of the central Louisiana coast. Temperatures ahead of a cold front concurrently moving east of the Rocky Mountains rose above the day before the fire ignited and on the day of ignition, resulting in 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. Throughout Texas, local fire departments responded to 227 fires on September 4, 57 of which were new fires. The likelihood of a wildfire igniting given the prevailing weather conditions was around 90 percent. == Fire progression ==

on board the Terra satellite on September 5|alt=Satellite image of the smoke plume emanating from the fire The wildfire complex began as three individual fires whose ignitions were reported within three hours on September 4, 2011. The first fire grew quickly after ignition; the Bastrop volunteer fire department requested fire suppression equipment from the TFS at 2:25 p.m. CDT but determined at 2:33 p.m. CDT that the blaze was uncontrollable, prompting evacuations. Pushed southward by a strong northerly wind, the wildfire crossed Texas State Highway 21 at 3:02 p.m. CDT. Mike Fisher, the emergency management coordinator for Bastrop County, formally declared the situation a disaster at that time, authorizing aid from outside of the county. The conflagration subsequently spread into Bastrop State Park and began to encroach upon Texas State Highway 71. The highway's right-of-way formed a preexisting firebreak spanning 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. 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 range. The combination of gusts with continued low relative humidity and strong atmospheric instability perpetuated environmental conditions conducive to large fire growth. with its advance still unperturbed by firefighting efforts. Flames reached the Colorado River and crossed south of the river twice during the day, hamstringing the ability for firefighters to obtain water. 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. bulldozing a firebreak on September 7|alt=Photograph of a person leading a bulldozer through a wooded area 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." 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. The TFS assessed that 785 homes had been destroyed by September 7, 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. The wildfire was 50 percent contained by noon on September 10 and 70 percent contained by noon on September 12. 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. After September 22, 18 days after ignition, the wildfire was 95 percent contained. Beneficial rains on September 24–25, including totals as much as in parts of Bastrop County, allowed firefighters to target hot spots more deeply embedded within the fire perimeter. The Bastrop County Complex was declared controlled on October 10. Another fire, called the Union Chapel Fire, began on the afternoon of September 5 near Cedar Creek High School some to the west of the Bastrop County Complex. Though a discrete fire, TFS operations considered the Union Chapel Fire a part of the Bastrop County Complex. 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. == Firefighting efforts ==

More than 30 airplanes and helicopters from the Texas National Guard and TFS were involved in aerial firefighting efforts. Within the first week of the fire, aircraft performed 1,647 drops of water or fire retardant on the conflagration. Combined with the nearby Union Chapel Fire, 2,367 drops of water or fire retardant were performed in September 2011, equivalent to 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of fire suppression payload. The most intense aerial firefighting operations occurred on September 6. The converted DC-10 and four Lockheed C-130 Hercules tankers remained on standby at the airport for other deployments after the Bastrop fire diminished. Firefighting crews from 30 agencies assisted in combating the wildfire in its first days. == Closures and evacuations ==

The first evacuations of homes began within 20 minutes of the first fire being reported on September 4. Twenty subdivisions were subject to evacuations during the spread of the fire, including mandatory evacuation orders, accounting for some 5,000 people. Some residents were allowed to examine the hardest-hit neighborhoods for the first time on September 8. A staggered reentry of residents to additional evacuated subdivisions began on September 12 and continued through September 15 as the wildfire subsided. Volunteers rescued 160 animals from the Bastrop Animal Shelter, evacuating them to Austin. Bastrop Independent School District and Smithville Independent School District closed their schools on September 6 and resumed classes on September 12; the school closures also resulted in cancellations of football and volleyball events for area schools. 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. Texas State Highway 71 was closed during the fire and reopened at 8:00 a.m. CDT on September 10. Texas State Highway 21 was also closed but reopened on September 12. The breach of the firebreak on October 4 prompted additional road closures and the evacuations of 25–30 homes. == Impact and effects ==

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. 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. The estimated toll exceeded the estimated losses statewide from fires in 2009the costliest year for wildfires in the state before 2011. 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. all power was restored by September 27. The two people killed by the fire were found on September 6, 2011, after law enforcement and search crews combed through burned neighborhoods. One person was found near Smithville and the other near Paige; both of the fatalities were in neighborhoods that had been evacuated. Urban Search and Rescue Texas Task Force 1 was later deployed to the area to search for additional victims. The Bastrop County Complex affected 96 percent of Bastrop State Park, Seventy percent of the park was severely burned. The regional state parks office near Bastrop State Park was also destroyed by the fire. Vegetation in the park suffered extensively, leading to the loss of around 70 percent of canopy trees and 90–92 percent of understory vegetation. The fire also spread across 39 percent of the Lost Pines ecoregion. though the fire may have pushed their populations beyond their typical range within Bastrop County. Similarly, the populations of other native amphibians and reptilesnamely the six-lined racerunner (Cnemidophorus sexlineatus), southern prairie lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus), and Hurter's spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus hurteri)did not decrease as a result of the fire. Riparian forestscommon nesting habitats for birdsremained largely intact in the fire. The fire burned unevenly, leaving some areas lightly scorched while burning other areas so thoroughly that all nutrients were purged from the underlying soil. 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, south of the Colorado River. ==Reaction==

Political response and FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Kevin L. Hannes holding a press conference on September 17, 2011|alt=Photograph of an outdoor press conference In response to the wildfire, Governor of Texas Rick Perry forwent his presidential campaign stop in South Carolina and returned home on Tuesday, September 6, to "address the public and organize requests for more federal aid". Perry and the Texas Legislature drew criticism over their roles in substantial budget cuts to the Texas Forest Service and volunteer fire departments, both of which the state relies heavily upon for combating wildfires. Mario Gallegos, Jim Dunnam, Kirk Watson, the Center for Public Policy Priorities and others opined that these budget cuts exacerbated conditions. Perry criticized the Obama administration for delays in responding to requests made to FEMA for relief aid. Community and social media efforts Members of the community were noted for voluntarily working to save several homes from destruction by the wildfire. On September 7, a Facebook page entitled Bastrop Fire – Adopt a Family was created to help match up homeless victims with those willing to help house them or provide other assistance. Local musicians and organizations based in nearby Austin, Texas, organized a benefit concert entitled "Fire Relief: The Concert for Central Texas" to raise money for victims of the Bastrop fire. The concert was hosted by Kyle Chandler at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin on October 17 and featured several musicians including Christopher Cross, the Dixie Chicks, and Willie Nelson, raising over $500,000. On September 27, 2011, the Bastrop County Long Term Recovery Team (BCLTRT) was formed as a volunteer organization of community members, eventually becoming a 501(c)(3) organization in February 2012. The BCLTRT helped rebuild 133 homes in Bastrop County destroyed by both the Bastrop County Complex fire and subsequent disasters, with additional funding from the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. 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. == Aftermath ==

in Bastrop State Park in 2015|alt=Photograph of new lolloby pine growth amid numerous tall dead trunks On September 9, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama granted a 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. The grant followed preliminary assessments conducted by four FEMA teams of the damage. The government of Bastrop County anticipated that post-fire cleanup would cost $25 million, with FEMA funding $19 million. The destruction of property led to five years of reduced property tax revenue for local government entities and services. 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. Several lawsuits were filed against private companies concerning the inadequate pruning of trees near power lines. A class-action lawsuit filed against the Asplundh Tree Expert Company and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative was dismissed in 2015. The 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. A third lawsuit involving the same parties was filed in 2018 and reached a $5 million settlement in 2020. == See also ==