AMARILLO, TEXAS -- A wildfire that sparked evacuations in five different neighborhoods has now been contained. Many neighbors sat on a hill overlooking the La Paloma area, were worried about the outcome.
"They were driving up and down the street using their speakers," said David Campsey, who lives in La Paloma. Campsey's wife was home alone, until he came home from work sick. She woke him up as fire crews told them to evacuate. He said, if he hadn't showed up, she would not have a car to be able out of the house with.
The wind that carried their voices to tell everyone to get out that also spread the fire and the thick black smoke. "I was trying to say calm for my kids but we drove out it looked close," said Amanda Dawson, who lives in the Woodlands area.
It was close, but fire crews stopped the flames just south of the railroad tracks near Walnut Hills.
"I was sitting here watching the tankers fill up with water and the air drops from the airplanes," said Campsey. Two planes helped attack the 60 plus acre fire, one from the Texas Forest Service and another single engine air tanker. The fire was burning quickly though grass and a large pile of railroad ties. Officials evacuated about 1,000 people and 300 homes. Two trucks filled with volunteer firefighters came for reinforcement. "It's just a helpless feeling you just have to trust the firefighters and policemen to do their job," continued Campsey.
For more than two hours they did their job, and finally contained the flames, but not without a loss, a mobile home and storage shed were burned. "Looking out it looked big, close, but then really not that much longer my husband called me and it said it looked out," said Dawson.
Police crews also tell us that during that time, the schools in that area were not letting any students in or out for their safety. The fire was put out just after 4 p.m. more than two hours after it started.
