Deja Vu in Texas

Last year during the middle of October (still extremely hot temperatures, mind you), I recall driving to work in Austin, Texas, and the haze was so dense people began to turn on their emergency flashers. I had absolutely no clue what was going on, or what was burning immensely. I quickly changed the radio to the AM news station to discover that the city of Bastrop which is around 30 miles away had another wildfire. The smoke plume was being pushed into Austin due to a windy cold front that came through the night before. One thing I cannot forget is the fact that I could smell the smoke as if the building adjacent to me was on fire, it was completely surreal. Luckily, after two weeks of battling the Hidden Pines fires and 4,582 acres destroyed, it was contained.

This incident, which was later confirmed as an accident by a tractor spark, was like deja-vu to many people in the local area. Personally, I was not affected by the 2011 Bastrop, Texas Complex Wildfire but I know many friends and families who were. What happened in 2011 made history by becoming the most destructive wildfire in Texas history. The images making headlines were terrifying, it seemed as if they were out of Hollywood’s special effects department. The weather conditions that year were unimaginably hot and everyone down in Texas explicitly remembers how the summer of 2011 was, later termed the 2011 North American heat wave. Records were set for 100 days of 100 degree weather. (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44519017/ns/weather/t/texas-cities-set-records-days-above-f/#.Vv30r_lrjIU ) The Bastrop Complex Fire burned 34,000 acres and lasted 24 days.

Downtown Austin Skyline

Credit: https://kathrynwarmstrong.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/34.jpg

Heading towards Bastrop (2011)

Credit: http://kxan.com/2015/10/15/how-2015-bastrop-county-wildfire-differs-from-2011/