Kids in fire-ravaged Texas back to school

BASTROP, Texas -- Paying attention in class may never have been so hard for children who started school yesterday after the most-destructive wildfire in Texas history left hundreds of their families homeless and many with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Fed by howling winds whipped up by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, flames streaked across drought-stricken Texas, where more than 190 fires statewide have killed four people. The worst damage was in Bastrop, where two smaller fires joined to form a monster blaze that has destroyed more than 1,550 homes and charred more than 34,000 acres.

With firefighters trying to contain the wildfire and power and water still cut off to some areas, many in the Bastrop area remain under evacuation orders.

School buses stopped yesterday at hotels including the Super8, Best Western and Holiday Inn Express to pick up students. Desk clerks said most of the people in the hotels were people displaced by the fires.

The school district provided breakfast and lunch for all students as many families don't have access to kitchens to pack lunches or make meals, spokesman Donald Williams said. Counselors from across Bastrop, with its charming downtown of quaint, colonial-style streets and shops, as well as health professionals from nearby school districts were called in to help school counselors.

Seven students at Mina Elementary School and four employees have lost their homes so far, principal Martha Werner said. The number could rise as 1,350 firefighters from around the country get the fire under control and begin assessing damage to individual properties.

Still, only 24 of the schools' 435 kindergarten through fourth-grade students failed to show for the first day of classes. The tally includes not only students left homeless or forced to move in with relatives in other communities, but some who fell ill with smoke inhalation or other fire-related problems.

Only 6 percent of students were absent districtwide, spokesman Donald Williams said.

"Today has really been a smooth day," Werner said. "A lot of smiles from the kids. It looked from afar mostly like a normal day, except for a few more hugs and a little extra loving and attention."

Students were encouraged to share their stories. Older children wrote in journals about their experiences, while younger ones drew pictures.

"Some won't speak but they'll draw you a picture and you'll know what's on their mind," Werner said. "Some of them wanted to know 'Is the fire still out there, is it going to get us?' "

The lobby of the Bastrop Independent School District headquarters was piled high with donated backpacks, pencils, notebooks and binders. Across the city so many residents have donated food, clothing and furniture that many aid centers said they simply didn't have the space to take more.

"I think teachers are very understanding that some students won't have their full attention," Werner said. "At some point, we've just got to jump back in and establish a new 'normal' -- whatever that's going to be for us."