Cross Plains destroyed by blaze

The fire spared Robert E. Howard's museum (see below), but his home town is gone. From The Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle:

CROSS PLAINS, Texas – When Bob Harrell arrived, the fire was tame, crawling through knee-high bluestem grass in a ditch four miles west of town. He had two fire trucks and four men, more than enough for a grass fire the size of a two-car garage. Mr. Harrell, the town's volunteer fire chief, snaked hoses around the fire's fringe and helped blast the hot edges. He thought they had it out – until an ember blew into a briar-choked fence line. The fire leapt and sprinted toward town, unzipping in a 40-mph wind. Then it exploded in a stand of dry cedar trees. In that moment, Cross Plains was lost. From above, what's left looks like a smudge on the open prairie.