Fire

Officials warned that Gillespie County and the Texas Hill Country remain in extreme drought and at risk for fires.

The Texas A&M Forest Service said on Thursday that the Crabapple Fire was at least 95% contained.

The Smokehouse Creek fire tore through the Texas Panhandle early last year, burning over a million acres in just weeks. In the small town of Canadian, where the devastation was severe, residents say the heartbreak lingers and a full recovery could take years.

Gillespie County has partnered with the OneStar Foundation to create the Crabapple Fire Relief Fund to help with the recovery effort.

A couple watched the catastrophic fire from a high vantage point.

Amid dangerous weather conditions, 65,000 Xcel Energy customers are without power and several wildfires burn in the Texas Panhandle. While collapsed structures and zero visibility affect drivers and residents across the region.

About two-thirds of land parcels in the city would be considered at risk of damage from wildfire, up from about 35% a decade ago. The changes would require builders to construct more homes with fireproof materials.

A fire weather watch has been issued for the Hill Country, Southern Edwards Plateau, and Rio Grande Plains for Wednesday afternoon and evening.

On Ash Wednesday, Christians hear the words "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." Those words ring differently for many whose churches and homes burned in the Los Angeles fires.

The last taste of winter may be back-to-back cold fronts coming late Saturday. The lows Sunday and Monday mornings will be in the 40s.